Saturday, October 29, 2016

Oligarchs cheer Comey's “hail Mary pass” to defeat Clinton & Trump on November 8th


On Friday, October 28th just eleven days before the presidential election, the oligarchs threw a “hail Mary” pass, not to Donald Trump but to Paul Ryan, the oligarch’s speaker of the house.  The oligarch controlled congress has been teed up to decide the election should neither candidate garner the 270 electoral votes required to become president.  Republican James Comey, Director of the FBI and oligarch’s handmaiden delivered a blow to the frontrunner in the presidential race, Hillary Clinton when he sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee stating the FBI was “reopening an investigation” into the e-mails of Hillary Clinton.  From Newsweek:

Excerpt:

The disclosure by the Federal Bureau of Investigation late on Friday, October 28 that it had discovered potential new evidence in its inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s handling of her personal email when she was Secretary of State has virtually nothing to do with any actions taken by the Democratic nominee, according to government records and an official with knowledge of the investigation, who spoke to Newsweek on condition of anonymity.

The revelation that the FBI has discovered additional emails convulsed the political world, and led to widespread (and erroneous) claims and speculation…  The truth is much less explosive. There is no indication the emails in question were withheld by Clinton during the investigation, the law enforcement official told Newsweek, nor does the discovery suggest she did anything illegal.

Also, none of the emails were to or from Clinton, the official said. Moreover, despite the widespread claims in the media that this development had prompted the FBI to “reopen” of the case, IT DID NOT; such investigations are never actually closed, and it is common for law enforcement to discover new information that needs to be examined.

My, my why would Republican James Comey drop this bombshell now?  We keep hearing that Comey is an honorable man, above reproach but is he?  From The Common Sense Show:

Excerpt:



Comey Oversaw Drug Cartel Money Laundering Operations As a Top Executive At HSBC Bank

Before becoming the director of the FBI, Director Comey, worked at the criminal bank of HSBC which laundered drug cartel and terrorist drug money in the worst banking scandal in US history.

My best insider source states that FBI Director James Comey has absolutely no law enforcement background, and is not qualified to run the FBI. To add insult to injury, the FBI Director held an executive position at HSBC Bank, while extreme money laundering operations where (sic) being carried out by the Mexican Drug Cartel and their terrorist allies with the direct assistance of HSBC banking officials. I asked my source if Comey would have known, and he replied “he would have to have been drunk 24/7 to not know what was going on”.

Comey did not just work at HSBC bank as his resume indicates (see below). He was on the Executive Board at the very time the HSBC scandal was breaking. There is no way he did not know as he looked the other way. And when he was vetted for his job as FBI Director, they knew then, he was in a key position of an organization that was caught laundering Mexican drug cartel money for the Sinoloas, the Los Zetas and their terrorist allies. Yet, despite this information which is publicly available, he was made the FBI Director with no law enforcement background!

Oh, dear and this is the man that dropped the bombshell that Hillary Clinton is being investigated for e-mails sent from Anthony Weiner’s personal computer.  E-mails that according to Newsweek had, “virtually nothing to do with any actions taken by the Democratic nominee.”  Whose interests are being served by Republican James Comey?  Maybe this article by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts can shed some light on Comey’s conflict of interest.

Excerpt:

The Failure of Democracy -- How The Oligarchs Plan To Steal The Election

I am now convinced that the Oligarchy that rules America intends to steal the presidential election. In the past, the oligarchs have not cared which candidate won as the oligarchs owned both. But they do not own Trump…

Who are the oligarchs?

--Wall Street and the mega-banks too big to fail and their agent the Federal Reserve, a federal agency that put five banks ahead of millions of troubled American homeowners who the Federal Reserve allowed to be flushed down the toilet. In order to save the mega-banks' balance sheets from their irresponsible behavior, the Fed has denied retirees any interest income on their savings for eight years, forcing the elderly to draw down their savings, leaving their heirs, who have been displaced from employment by corporate jobs offshoring, penniless.

--The military/security complex which has spent trillions of our taxpayer dollars on 15 years of gratuitous wars based entirely on lies in order to enrich themselves and their power.

--The neoconservatives whose crazed ideology of US world hegemony thrusts the American people into military conflict with Russia and China…

Hmmm, Wall Street mega-banks, the military/security complex and crazed neoconservatives hell bent on World War III stand to gain if Comey’s FBI can destroy the two front runners in the presidential election.  Gee, no conflict of interest there.  Paul Ryan and the GOP controlled congress are lapping up Comey’s latest witch hunt Pablum.  But if anyone believes this revelation by Comey is designed to benefit Donald Trump they are “dead wrong.”

What convinces me that the Oligarchy intends to steal the election is the vast difference between the presstitutes' reporting and the facts on the ground.  According to the presstitutes, Hillary is so far ahead that there is no point in Trump supporters bothering to vote…  I am yet to see one Hillary yard sign, but Trump signs are everywhere. Reports I receive are that Hillary's public appearances are unattended but Trump's are so heavily attended that people have to be turned away. This is a report from a woman in Florida:

"Trump has pulled huge numbers all over FL while campaigning here this week. I only see Trump signs and stickers in my wide travels. I dined at a Mexican restaurant last night. Two women my age sitting behind me were talking about how they had tried to see Trump when he came to Tallahassee. They left work early, arriving at the venue at 4:00 for a 6:00 rally. The place was already over capacity so they were turned away. It turned out that there were so many people there by 2:00 that the doors had to be opened to them. The women said that the crowds present were a mix of races and ages."



Interesting, in order for the oligarchs to succeed with a coup d'état this election is to create their own reality.  In other words they must convince the people that the two front runners are so unpopular that they cannot amass the 270 electoral votes to become president.  It’s the old “who are you going to believe me or your own lyin’ eyes.”   A free and honest press is vital to Democracy and we do not have a free or honest press.  Now AT&T is planning on merging with Time Warner to form the largest media monopoly in history, but Donald Trump has stated unequivocally his administration will block this unholy marriage.  From Bloomberg:

Excerpt:

Trump Would Block AT&T-Time Warner Deal in Media Crackdown

Donald Trump said he would block the AT&T Inc.-Time Warner Inc. tie-up if he becomes president, arguing that such media combinations leave too much power concentrated among too few companies, including ones he says are hostile to his presidential bid and rigging the election for Hillary Clinton.

The Republican commented during a speech on Saturday in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, billed as an unveiling of Trump’s “contract with the voter” and prospective actions for his first 100 days…  Trump also suggested he would favor a breakup of NBC and Comcast Corp., a merger completed in 2013.

Such deals, he said, are “poison” to democracy and result in companies “telling the voters what to think and what to do.” Trump, who has called the U.S. election rigged multiple times this month, didn’t discuss mergers among non-media companies.

Well, well is Trump right?  Are such deals as the NBC/Comcast and AT&T/Time Warner poison to democracy?  From Silicon Beat:

Excerpt:

AT&T built system for spying on own customers, selling info to law enforcement for millions: report

News that Yahoo reportedly gave in to a court order without a fight and spied on users on behalf of the FBI generated massive public outrage. Now it appears that AT&T has been spying on its customers on behalf of various law enforcement agencies, and that it’s been raking in millions of dollars in exchange for information about users, including their locations.

The telecommunications giant, whose planned $85 billion purchase of Time-Warner faces heavy scrutiny by regulators, created the “Hemisphere” program and used it to make millions of dollars a year peddling users’ personal information to police and other agencies, according to The Daily Beast…

AT&T developed Hemisphere in 2007, and it’s now used in 28 Drug Enforcement Agency intelligence centers, according to the article. Employees of the telecom reportedly analyze AT&T’s data on users to give information to the DEA.

Gee, that seems in violation of the constitution of America.  Sounds like a case for the US Supreme Court, our highest authority on the constitution.  An august body above reproach for their “non-partisan” interpretation of the constitution.  Not.  From Slate:

Excerpt:



No More Bush v. Gore

For many years after the Supreme Court ruled 5–4, along partisan lines, to resolve the 2000 election in a way that ensured George W. Bush would win the presidency, Justice Antonin Scalia would unerringly answer questions about Bush v. Gore and a potentially stolen election with a tart admonition to “get over it.”

The late justice’s words drove liberals nuts—it was about as dismissive as he could be without resorting to his middle finger. But as we fret about the toxic—and possibly even violent—outcome of a presidential election seen by a great swath of the electorate as illegitimate, and as we worry about the impossibility of post-election repair, Justice Scalia’s seemingly snotty answer reveals just what has been lost between 2000 and 2016.

Despite the rank injustice of how the 2000 election was decided, and the staggering silliness of the majority opinion in Bush v. Gore, Americans tolerated the judicial decree that the election was over…  Senate Republicans have now clearly signaled that any nominee seated by a Democratic president will not be “their” justice and a court dominated by Democratic appointees is no longer a real court.

So the oligarch controlled GOP has drawn a line in the sand, if the GOP loses the election they will not confirm any Supreme Court Justice nominated by a Democrat, effectively initiating a judicial coup.  Only a SCOTUS approved by the oligarchs is “legitimate.”  So will the 2016 election be stolen by the oligarchs?  In order to do so there must be massive, behind-the-scenes fraud.  From Insider Fox News:

Excerpt:

Officials in 2 States Say Early Voters Want to Change Their Ballots

Voters in Minnesota and Wisconsin have the option of changing their vote if they cast their ballots early or as absentees.  Rich Edson reported on "America's Election HQ" today that officials in the two states have confirmed that some voters are indeed changing their minds and their ballots.  Edson reported that the Minnesota Secretary of State's Office says that voters can ask to cancel their ballot until the close of business one week before Election Day.  "Wisconsin officials say voters can cancel their absentee ballots up to three times," Edson noted.

Ha, ha.  Who do you think those “some voters” are?  And what about those previous two votes cast, will they be counted as legitimate votes?  Are some voters allowed to cast three votes in Wisconsin?  You betcha.  Do you think elections in “Koch Brothers’ Korrupt Wisconsin are legitimate? 

He said that these rules are particularly significant in this election, with all the late-breaking sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump and WikiLeaks dumps of Hillary Clinton campaign emails.

"Now, thousands of voters in those states can resubmit their ballots if revelations about the candidates change their mind."

Yes, while some voters in Scott Walker’s Wisconsin can cast three ballots, students at UW-GB will have a difficult time even casting one vote, thanks to the GOP. From The Nation:

Excerpt:

A City Clerk Opposed an Early-Voting Site at UW–Green Bay Because ‘Students Lean More Toward the Democrats’

Carly Stumpner, a junior biology major at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay, had an hour between classes to vote during Wisconsin’s April 5 presidential primary. But when she arrived at her polling place on campus, the line stretched for two hours across the student union...   When polls closed at 8 pm, there were still 150 students waiting to vote. “Some people described it as chaos,” reported Ellery McCardle of the local ABC affiliate. “People were standing shoulder to shoulder, there was absolutely no room to move around in here.”

After the primary, leaders of eight different student groups—including the Republican, Democratic, and Libertarian parties and the Black Student Union—asked the city to put an early-voting location on campus to alleviate long lines. But city officials ignored the request and opened only one early-voting site on September 26 for the entire city—the third-largest in Wisconsin—at the clerk’s office, a 15-minute drive from campus, which is open only during business hours. City Clerk Kris Teske, an appointee of Republican Mayor Jim Schmitt, a close ally of Governor Scott Walker, said the city didn’t have the money, time, or security to open an early-voting location on campus or anywhere else…

But privately Teske gave a different reason for opposing an early-voting site at UW–Green Bay…   “I have heard it said that students lean more toward the democrats…  In 2014, Wisconsin’s Republican legislature eliminated early-voting hours on nights and weekends and restricted early-voting sites to one location per city.

GOP State Senator Glenn Grothman, who’s now a member of Congress, cited extended early-voting hours in heavily Democratic cities like Madison and Milwaukee and said, “I want to nip this in the bud before too many other cities get on board.”




Even Barack Obama and John McCain are now admitting the election is rigged.  From Veterans Today:

Did McCain and Obama BOTH admit 2016 election is rigged?

In a stunning bipartisan admission, President Barrack Obama and Sen. John McCain reportedly have revealed that the outcome of the upcoming presidential election has been essentially decided in advance, and that the pre-ordained winner – barring an act of God – will be Hillary Clinton.  McCain’s reported remarks echoed Obama’s statement in August that Trump will be declared the loser, and will not even be allowed to raise questions, unless he is at least 10 or 15 points ahead:

“If Mr. Trump is up 10 or 15 points on Election Day and ends up losing, then maybe he can raise some questions,” President Obama stated on August 4th according to Reuters… The official admission that Trump will not be allowed to even “raise questions,” much less claim victory, unless he is “up 10 or 15 points” speaks volumes about American elections…

The official admission that Trump will not be allowed to even “raise questions,” much less claim victory, unless he is “up 10 or 15 points” speaks volumes about American elections. If you win by less than 10 or 15 percent, they will steal the election from you – as Bush/Cheney did when Kerry won by roughly 54% – 46% in 2004, but had the result nullified by rigged voting machines. The cyber expert who rigged the machines, Mike Connell, was killed in an engineered plane crash shortly before he was scheduled to testify in court against Karl Rove.

That’s right, unless Donald Trump wins with a “fraud-proof margin” he cannot even question the preordained results.   So just eleven days before the presidential election, the oligarchs have thrown a “hail Mary” pass to Paul Ryan and the oligarch controlled congress.  It doesn’t matter that there’s no there, there.  The media will run with the “bombshell” October Surprise provided by the oligarch’s handmaiden James Comey. 

After the election Comey will receive another cushy job for his service to the oligarchs, maybe at the World Bank this time.  The results are in, the election is rigged, and Americans have a choice in front of them, they can either rise up and fight against the oligarchs or take Antonin Scalia’s advice and “get over it.” I for one will fight.




By Patricia Baeten


Monday, October 24, 2016

The consequences of “accepting the outcome” of a fraudulent election



America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.   Abraham Lincoln

On Friday I stopped at a local pizza parlor to grab a quick, late lunch and as I waited I saw a full-page newspaper story on the 2000 election.  In the article it said that “Al Gore accepted the outcome of the election and stepped aside for the good of the Nation.”  The first thought that came to my mind was, is this an episode of “Fractured Fairy Tales?”  “Fractured Fairy Tales” was a segment on the cartoon show “Rocky and Bullwinkle” where well-known fairy tales were re-written in order to change the moral of the story.  It occurred to me that the 2000 election is being rewritten to change the actual sequence of events and the real consequences of “accepting the outcome” of a rigged election.

Accepting the outcome



The Florida coup d’état was well-planned by Governor Jeb Bush, the brother of the GOP candidate, his secretary of State Katherine Harris and Theresa LaPore.  First there were bogus felon lists that contained a list of names of individuals that were convicted of felonies in Florida as well as neighboring states.  Any person with a similar name was listed as a felon and denied the right to vote, especially minorities with similar surnames such as Jackson.  It is estimated that 173,000 names were purged from the Florida voter registry by the office of Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris.  Florida was the only state that payed a private company that promised to “cleanse” voter rolls.

Then there was the butterfly ballot.  In America by legal statute the Republican candidate is listed first on the ballot and the Democrat is listed second.  On the butterfly ballot, on the left side where the presidential candidates were listed, first was Bush and second was Gore.  However if you punched the second hole you were voting for Patrick Buchanan since the butterfly ballot placed Buchanan on the right side of the ballot which made a punch in the second hole a Buchanan vote.  According to the Green Party:

Excerpt:

Butterfly ballots are the most prone to voter confusion as it is not clear which hole goes with which candidate. Palm Beach County, the one county in Florida that used this system, is a predominantly Democratic-leaning county yet extreme conservative candidate Pat Buchanan had a phenomenal showing there…


Pat Buchanan himself has admitted that most of his votes in Palm Beach County were meant for Al Gore, saying he "did not campaign and bought no advertising there."  He added, "I would say 95 to 98 percent of [the votes] were for Gore.”

An investigation by the Civil Rights Commission also found that Governor Bush had a multi-pronged voter purge on November 7th, 2000.  

Excerpt:

TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Jeb Bush told a panel hearing complaints of voting irregularities in Florida that he had no plans to order his own investigation into the Nov. 7 election although he has the authority to do so.

Bush answered questions from the U.S. Civil Rights Commission looking at allegations of voting problems, including complaints that registered voters were turned away from the polls, election equipment in poor precincts was outdated, state police put up roadblocks near polling sites and non-English speaking voters weren't helped to cast their votes…

By day's end, commission members appeared frustrated by state officials -- including Bush -- claiming that local authorities have control over Florida elections…

Peaceful transition of power?

Even with all the election tampering on the part of the Jeb Bush Administration and the GOP, Al Gore still won Florida.  In spite of a media collectively claiming that Bush had won along with Gore’s DNC hand-picked war hawk Vice Presidential candidate, Joe Lieberman calling for Gore to concede the election, the allegations of widespread corruption in Florida reached Al Gore who requested a recount of the votes.


The Florida Supreme Court, who had sole jurisdiction over the election ordered a recount of the votes in Florida.  As the recount began the GOP organized what was called the “Brooks Brothers Riot” that would violently attack the people counting the votes, threatening their lives, shutting down the recount operation.”

Excerpt:

After the Miami “Brooks Brothers Riot” – named after the protesters’ preppie clothing – no government action was taken beyond the police rescuing several Democrats who were surrounded and roughed up by the rioters. While no legal charges were filed against the Republicans, newly released documents show that at least a half dozen of the publicly identified rioters were paid by Bush’s recount committee.

The payments to the Republican activists are documented in hundreds of pages of Bush committee records – released grudgingly to the Internal Revenue Service last month, 19 months after the 36-day recount battle ended. Overall, the records provide a road map of how the Bush recount team brought its operatives across state lines to stop then-Vice President Al Gore’s recount efforts.  The records show that the Bush committee spent a total of $13.8 million to frustrate the recount of Florida’s votes and secure the state's crucial electoral votes for Bush.

In addition, as the “Brooks Brothers Riot” was taking place, paid goons were bussed into Washington to surround Vice President Gore’s residence at the Naval Observatory and scream “get out of Cheney’s House.”  Due to the escalating violence, the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in, even though they had no statutory authority to do so, and five Republican justices overturned the will of the voters and installed George W. Bush as POTUS.

Al Gore steps aside for the “good of the nation.”

Al Gore is credited with stepping aside and allowing the loser of the election to assume the office of the presidency.  But was it for “the good of the nation?”  Hardly, within nine months of assuming office the 911 attacks took place.  Could the attacks have been avoided under a President Gore?  Yes.  The first action of the Bush Administration was to throw out the recommendations of the Gore Commission on aviation safety and the Hart-Rudman Commission’s recommendations to protect the country from terror attacks.  Bush appointed Vice President Cheney to conduct his own study.  Sadly after the 911 attacks Jake Tapper wrote about the deep remorse felt by the Hart-Rudman Commission co-chairs:


Excerpt:

Sept. 12, 2001 | WASHINGTON -- They went to great pains not to sound as though they were telling the president "We told you so."

But on Wednesday, two former senators, the bipartisan co-chairs of a Defense Department-chartered commission on national security, spoke with something between frustration and regret about how White House officials failed to embrace any of the recommendations to prevent acts of domestic terrorism delivered earlier this year.

Bush administration officials told former Sens. Gary Hart, D-Colo., and Warren Rudman, R-N.H., that they preferred instead to put aside the recommendations issued in the January report by the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century. Instead, the White House announced in May that it would have Vice President Dick Cheney study the potential problem of domestic terrorism -- which the bipartisan group had already spent two and a half years studying -- while assigning responsibility for dealing with the issue to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, headed by former Bush campaign manager Joe Allbaugh.

Before the White House decided to go in its own direction, Congress seemed to be taking the commission's suggestions seriously, according to Hart and Rudman. "Frankly, the White House shut it down," Hart says…  "We predicted it," Hart says of Tuesday's horrific events. "We said Americans will likely die on American soil, possibly in large numbers -- that's a quote (from the commission's Phase One Report) from the fall of 1999."

On Tuesday, Hart says, as he sat watching TV coverage of the attacks, he experienced not just feelings of shock and horror, but also frustration. "I sat tearing my hair out," says the former two-term senator. "And still am."  Hart says he spent 90 minutes with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and an hour with Secretary of State Colin Powell lobbying for the White House to devote more attention to the imminent dangers of terrorism and their specific, detailed recommendations for a major change in the way the federal government approaches terrorism. He and Rudman briefed National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice on the commission's findings…


Back to the Future

Once again we have a candidate that is a threat to the military industrial complex.  Presidential candidate Donald Trump is being pilloried by the press for refusing to accept the outcome of the 2016 election before it has even occurred.  Trump has called the election “rigged” and refuses to accept the preordained conclusion of the vote count.  In 2000 Al Gore stepped aside when he couldn’t garner the support of his party.  Should Donald Trump for “the good of the nation” pledge to accept the corrupt election results that are in before the first vote is cast? 

We, as Americans can only look back at history and decide, what will be the consequences if we decide to accept the outcome of another fraudulent election?  Will another Fractured Fairy Tale be written in four or eight years to explain why America went to war with Russia?  Only we hold the answers.


By Patricia Baeten

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Oligarchs outraged Trump has the exposed election is rigged


Donald Trump is correct the election is rigged but not by the voters rigged by the RNC and DNC and their billionaire donors. 

The war room

When a gaggle of women was marched out by the press to make claims against Donald Trump for alleged sexual assault, it was like Deja vu all over again.  We’ve seen this rodeo before in 1992, when daddy Bush’s FBI director Louis Freeh dispatched 200 agents to Arkansas brandishing fists full of dollars to comb through trailer parks seeking women to make the same claim against Bill Clinton.  While Clinton, a polished politician had a war room to deflect the mud slung his way, Trump a political neophyte has been largely on his own. 

Media promotes attacks

With carnival barkers like CNN’s Jake Tapper drumming those drums on his show non-stop calling the unsubstantiated claims, substantiated because the women came forward.  I guess Tapper doesn’t know the meaning of substantiated or doesn’t want to know.  Now we are finding out the Bush/Trump tapes were released by Bush Family loyalist and Paul Ryan’s top advisor Dan Senor.  Senor, who is married to Campbell Brown the ex-NBC commentator and current charter school enthusiast, was also part of the Bush team who brought us the Iraq war. 

The election is rigged by RNC and DNC

Trump is right, the election is rigged.  Rigged by the two parties who have rigged every election since 2000.  The election rigging begins at the headquarters of the DNC and the RNC long before the primary begins.  The duopoly agrees on a candidate then forms the election rules around the desired outcome.  But this election the two candidates they hate most managed to get the most votes, and they are pissed.

The real election fraud


While actual voter fraud is rare, the GOP has devised “caging lists.”  Caging lists are lists of voters in GOP controlled states that are compared to names of voters who voted in other GOP states.  Any similar names are determined to be fraudulent votes and are cancelled.  Gregory Palast has been investigating these “caging lists” and this is what he found.

Excerpt:

This is the story of the investigation of the theft of the 2016 election — it’s a crime still in progress — and a hunt for the very rich guys behind the crime” ... it all starts off with the GOP’s outrageous voter fraud claims catching Palast’s eye…  Donald Trump’s claims of people “voting many, many times”…. “Is there really a gigantic conspiracy of one million Democrats to vote twice, or is it a massive scheme to take away the votes of a million innocent people?”

He had to get his hands on the list of “skanky double-voting fiends” to see for himself. And so he called officials in North Carolina, asking for the list of names — from the interstate “Crosscheck” program spearheaded by Chis Kobach — but he got the brush-off. Undeterred, he called officials in 28 other states, and was told repeatedly that the Crosscheck list of supposed criminals was “confidential.”

Finally a secret source provided the list of 7.2 million suspects in 29 states… one thing immediately jumps out: The first names and last names may match, but the middle ones don’t. There’s “George Joseph Peck” matched with “George R. Peck,” “William Trad Price” matched with “William E. Price,” “Angela L. Reeves” matched with “Angela Kay Reeves.” The list goes on and on like that. 

This is where the 2000 flashback comes in, providing the template for everything we’re seeing today in various, more sophisticated forms. “Ex-cons willing to go back to prison just for voting?” That was Palast’s original incredulous response back in 2000. Sure enough, after beating the bushes, “I couldn’t find a single illegal voter.”

Crosscheck’s PowerPoint presentation says they use Social Security numbers and birthdates, but the lists contain neither. “They don’t want to capture double voters,” Palast concludes. “It’s just a bunch of common names.”

Yes Donald the vote is rigged but the poor voters are not the culprits.  In addition to “caging lists” there are the voter I.D. laws a byproduct of the caging lists.  Claiming millions of voters are voting in more than one state with crosschecking names of voters, the GOP has demanded voter I.D. laws.  ALEC, the Koch Brother’s legislative bill mill, writes cookie cutter legislation that is introduced to state legislatures.  The voter I.D. laws we are seeing today are a product of ALEC.


Yes Donald the election is rigged.  It’s the electronic voting machines they are programmed to flip the votes.  In a recent Democratic primary in Florida, a state that has all electronic voting machines with no paper trails, Congressman Alan Grayson led ex-Republican turned Democrat Patrick Murphy 70%-30%.  The President, Vice-President and Senate Minority leader have all denounced Grayson and supported Patrick Murphy in the Senate race.  Voters went to the polls, and a miracle occurred.  Murphy received 70% and Grayson 30%.  It’s called vote flipping.  Yes Donald the election is rigged.


Yes Donald the election is rigged.  It is rigged in every imaginable way and is aided and abetted by big media, owned by the billionaires who buy elections.  Now the media is watching in horror as Donald Trump makes rigged elections a centerpiece of his campaign.  Big media has been trying to destroy the two front runners since the get-go.  In spite of years of investigative reports showing American elections are rigged, bought, unfair and undemocratic, big media is desperately trying to put lipstick on that pig.  The oligarchs are irate with Trump for tearing the scab off America’s 16 year-old unhealed wound.  The election is rigged.



By Patricia Baeten

Friday, October 14, 2016

Amy Goodman’s crime of journalism


First published in Blasting News:

Amy Goodman charged with the crime of covering the corporate private security attacking Standing Rock Sioux protesting Dakota Access Pipeline.

Amy Goodman has turned herself in to North Dakota authorities after being charged with criminal trespassing for covering a private militia’s violent crackdown on protesters in North Dakota.  Goodman announced on Thursday on her show Democracy Now! “I will go back to North Dakota to fight this charge,” she said. “It is a clear violation of the First Amendment." Goodman went on to say "I was doing my job as a journalist, covering a violent attack on Native American protesters."

Journalism criminalized

On Saturday September 3rd as Goodman was covering the protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline private security guards violently attacked the protesters.  Goodman’s live coverage showed guards attacking protesters using dogs and pepper spray and showed a dog with blood on its mouth and nose.  Goodman’s footage went viral.



Billionaires’ media ownership

Gone are the days of a vigilant press, here to stay are billionaire owned infotainment style misinformation.  Billionaire media moguls like Rupert Murdoch and Michael Bloomberg were once an anomaly but now are the norm.  The media has been bought out by billionaires like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.  Since the demise of the Fairness Doctrine under Ronald Reagan, billionaires now own part or all of several of America’s influential national newspapers, including The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

Allegations are now facts

The fourth estate now publishes allegations as fact, a sort of lazy journalism that serves its bought-and-paid-for government officials rather than serving the people.  Media seeks to destroy the lives of those who lose favor with the government.  The Obama Administration, using the Espionage Act, has indicted or prosecuted six current or former government employees and two government contractors since 2009.  This is unprecedented since under all other presidents, only three prosecutions occurred under the Act since 1917.



Serving the war machine

The most egregious example of media malfeasance has to be the coverage of the west’s war of aggression in Syria.  As Steve Lendman pointed out in a recent article “Headlines and commentaries were virtually the same, shamelessly blaming Russia for vetoing France’s draft resolution—without explaining its adoption would assure greater war. Nor was Moscow given credit for its responsible cessation of hostilities draft proposal—despicably vetoed by America, Britain and France as expected.”

Amy Goodman herself has reported inaccurately on the events occurring in Syria.  A recent guest on DN was Yasser Munif, an assistant professor at Emerson College in Massachusetts.  Dave Alpert described the interchange between Munif and Goodman as such:  “His comments consistently focused on Russia and the Syrian Army as the sponsors of the “slaughter” of people in Aleppo. This is the kind of biased coverage one might expect from the N.Y. Times, MSNBC, or even Fox “News.”   The media coverage of the war in Syria will turn out to be the most shameful episode in the history of American press.

So Amy Goodman is returning to North Dakota to face charges of “criminal trespassing” for her raw coverage of a private company’s militia attacking the Standing Rock Sioux.  Goodman will have the best legal representation George Soros can buy, but at some point all journalists must be protected from prosecution.  Our democracy cannot survive without it.



By Patricia Baeten

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

Deaf, dumb and blind GOP just made Trump President

First published in Blasting News:



A hard rain is gonna fall on America and it can’t be stopped, Donald Trump will be the next President.

On Monday the GOP establishment met behind closed doors to conspire against Donald Trump.  Tuesday morning Washington Journal, C-SPAN’s flagship call in program posed this question to Republicans only “should the GOP stick with Trump?”  One hundred percent of callers, which included Democrats who support Trump want to dump the “weasels” (their words not mine) in the GOP who have abandoned Trump. 

Oligarch’s reign will end

The oligarch owned establishment has lost control over the people and will never get it back.  The phenomena is unlike anything ever seen in this country before.  The people hate our establishment politicians who care nothing about the people.  Trump has unleashed the sleeping beast that is the American people, who refuse take on the shackles of a congress that passes lethal laws that kill and maim ourselves and our children.

Congress serves rich and powerful

The signs have been there for a long time, in 2014 the Business Insider wrote “The U.S. government does not represent the interests of the majority of the country's citizens, but is instead ruled by those of the rich and powerful, a new study from Princeton and Northwestern universities has concluded.”  In 2016 Paul Ryan’s GOP passed HR933 the "Monsanto Protection Act.” 

Five terrifying facts about HR933

Here is what the International Business Times had to say about “five terrifying facts about the Farmer Assurance Provision -- Section 735 of the spending bill.”

1.)    The "Monsanto Protection Act" effectively bars federal courts from being able to halt the sale or planting of controversial genetically modified (aka GMO) or genetically engineered (GE) seeds, no matter what health issues may arise concerning GMOs in the future.
2.)   The provision's language was apparently written in collusion with Monsanto.
3.)   Many members of Congress were apparently unaware that the "Monsanto Protection Act" even existed within the bill they were voting on.
4.)   The President did nothing to stop it, either.
5.)   It sets a terrible precedent.



It sets a terrible precedent indeed, barring federal courts from halting the sale of Monsanto’s cancer, morbidity and mortality causing chemically engineered foods from killing Americans.  How many Americans supported that bill?  Zero, and that is just one example of who our congress is looking out for.  That is what you get from a congress that has no worries about being reelected because they control the election and the election outcome.

Politicians choose the voters instead of voters choosing politicians

Through redistricting, voter ID laws and decimating campaign finance laws the congress has denied the people their inherent right to elect their leaders.  And what do the people get?  From the Washington Times: “Rep. Paul Ryan defends cuts to military retirement in budget bill.  Rep. Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, defended controversial cuts to military retirement pay in the budget deal, saying that the need for military compensation reform is “undeniable.””

The American people have finally had enough, the rage that has been bubbling under the surface has erupted and Paul Ryan and the GOP have lit the fuse.  Their arrogant disregard for the American people was on full display when the GOP demanded Trump step down and allow his GOP chosen running mate, Mike Pence to take his place.  The super storm that has been on the horizon is here, and a hard rain is gonna fall and there is nothing that can stop it now.



By Patricia Baeten

Monday, October 10, 2016

Donald Trump the comeback King wins the debate defeats RNC


The merge of news and entertainment has devolved presidential debates to reality show status with Trump fighting three foes, media, GOP and Clinton. When Trump took to the stage he had to battle the GOP and their demand that Trump quit his presidential bid, eight hours of Sunday morning media attacks and as his opponent Hillary Clinton.  The moderators Anderson Cooper and Martha Raddatz seemed to think their main job was to finish off Trump.  The trap was set.

Moderators attack Trump out of the gate.

The moderators decided to attack Donald Trump over the Billy Bush tape from the start setting a demeaning tone for the debates.  After apologizing for his statements, Trump went into a litany of the reasons he was running; the status quo is unacceptable and he wants to change that.  He wants to make America great again. 

Hillary miss-quotes Alexis de Tocqueville

Hillary said America is great because America is good.  Alexis de Tocqueville’s actual quote was “America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”  One could make the case that with the US President as judge, jury and executioner through drone killings and endless wars of aggression, America has ceased to be good, therefore America has ceased to be great.

Obamacare

Hillary Clinton decided to double down on Obamacare vowing that if we just throw more government money into subsidies, increase penalties for not buying horrifically expensive insurance with astronomical deductibles, and gifting tax payer subsidies to insurance company profits Obamacare can be fixed.  Even Bill Clinton has called Obamacare the “craziest thing in the world.”



Immigration and Syrian Refugees

Hillary brought up the discredited photo of child with blood on his head after an alleged Russian and Syrian bombing of the US backed rebels in Aleppo.  Hillary then cited phony media reports that Trump as a private citizen was for Iraq war. When Trump challenged Hillary and cited he had the backing of the border control guards he was again interrupted by Martha Raddatz. Trump stuck to his guns on Syria, Russia and Iran.

 WikiLeaks exposes the real Clinton

The moderators briefly brought up WikiLeaks expose of Hillary Clinton.  In a speech before Wall Street banks, she stated her positions as stated for the public were different than her real positions behind closed doors.  In her response, Clinton blamed Russia and claimed WikiLeaks was working with Russia to defeat her and elect Trump.  She then tried to deflect from her statements and tried to bring up Trump’s taxes.

Taxes

The moderators then segued to Trump’s tax returns.  Trump said he would get rid of carried interest deductions for billionaires.  That was interesting since Clinton supporter billionaire Mark Cuban was on Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday saying he was against getting rid of carried interest.  There must be a reason why billionaires want carried interest to remain.

Aleppo Syria

Hillary would continue to arm rebels whereas Trump supports forming an alliance with Russia and Syria to fight ISIS.  Raddatz tried to intervene excusing the failing policy in Syria to remove elected President Assad.  Trump was able to make the case that the US has more to benefit from providing safe zones for Syrians in Syria than having Syrians flee their country.

The winner is Donald Trump

All in all the debate went well.  Trump was, by accounts I’ve seen from post-debate callers into C-SPAN, the winner of the debate.  The following morning callers into C-Span’s three hour recap of the debate vowed to vote for Trump and against GOP defectors down ticket.  Some of the on-the-fence Clinton supporters have moved to Trump after hearing what Clinton says to voters is not what she says behind closed Wall Street donor doors.  Particularly incensed are the Bernie Sanders supporters who have vowed to either vote for Trump or a third party.

The biggest losers, Paul Ryan and the GOP

Unlike the real polls, CNN whose Anderson Cooper was a moderator and the Wall Street Journal’s “never Trump” poll overwhelmingly showed a Clinton win.  Anyone that would believe that hasn’t watched C-Span where actual callers revealed a much different result.  The biggest losers, Paul Ryan and the GOP.  On to the third debate, Trump is on a roll and he’s thrown off the GOP yoke and he’s ready for bear.  Should be fun.




Patricia Baeten

Saturday, October 8, 2016

GOP heads for the fainting couches over Trump

First published in Blasting News:


The GOP is feigning outrage over Trump’s locker room comments 11 years ago, but the real outrage what the GOP’s policies against women have wrought.

The GOP’s anti-women policies have wrought horrors against women and children that are far more outrageous than anything Donald Trump has said.  Those policies have had real life and death consequences for women and children.  Now the GOP is demanding Trump drop out of the race and allow the GOP to choose a replacement.  Well head for the fainting couch, it’s not going to happen.

America’s Shocking Maternal Deaths

While the rate of women’s death during pregnancy or shortly after childbirth has dropped in nations across the world, it has reached shockingly high levels in the US.  According to the New York Times, the US has “the second-highest maternal mortality ratio among 31 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Only Mexico had a higher figure.”  A study by the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology, in Texas the ratio of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, doubled to 35.8 in 2014 from 17.7 in 2000.

GOP rejected expansion of Medicaid for poor

Compare Texas with Germany where they have universal healthcare, there were only 4.1 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2014.  GOP controlled Texas rejected expansion of Medicaid that would have covered 1.2 million more poor under the Affordable Care Act.  The GOP with their ideological opposition to contraception and abortion, have repeatedly shortchanged reproductive health programs that benefit women, particularly the poor.

Paul Ryan and the GOP’s Budgets are Killers

Paul Ryan’s tax reform proposals have been particularly bad for women and children.  Previous GOP budgets have included (From Arkansas Times):
  
  •         At least $2.7 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and subsidies to help low- and moderate-income people buy private insurance.

  •         Cuts to SNAP (formerly food stamps) by $137 billion over the next decade.

  •         Cuts to Pell Grants for low- and moderate-income students by up to $125 billion through such means as freezing the maximum grant… and repealing all mandatory funding for Pell Grants.

  •         Cuts an additional $385 billion — beyond its SNAP cuts —from the budget category containing many mandatory programs for low- and moderate-income Americans, such as Supplemental Security Income for the elderly and disabled, the school lunch and child nutrition programs, and the Earned Income and Child Tax Credits for lower-income working families.


GOP demands Trump drop out of race

Oh the outrage, Donald Trump does not have the “Christian Values” of the GOP.  Now the GOP is demanding Trump drop out of the race.  Get the vapors as the GOP heads for the fainting couch, Trump has vowed he will never drop out.  And why should he, according to the viewers’ calls that came in to C-SPAN’s Washington Journal on Saturday, they don’t care.  Trump as well as his supporters believe in a strong Social Security system, upholding the obligation of our nation to our veterans, feeding our people and making sure our citizens have a right to a dignified life and death. 

Nice try GOP but you are not changing a single mind about Trump, you are simply turning the klieg lights on your own hypocrisy.  Donald J. Trump will be the next President of the US and there’s nothing you can do about it.  Your October surprise is just another GOP dog and pony show of faux Christian values that have nothing to do with Christianity. 


By Patricia Baeten

Monday, October 3, 2016

Donald and Hillary’s No. 1 enemy their own campaigns

First published in Blasting News:


The biggest enemy that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have in this election are their own party elite and big media that seek to destroy them.

Big media’s smear machine has kicked into high gear with only one goal, destroy Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton ensuring neither gets 270 electoral votes.  Big media and the party elite devised a plan that would toss the election to the GOP controlled House to choose the president.  Waiting in the wings is Evan Mc Mullin an ex-CIA agent, Goldman Sachs banker and Paul Ryan’s budget guru.

Campaigns destroyed from within

Clinton and Trump’s campaigns have been infiltrated with party elites who are sabotaging their respective campaigns.  New York Times reporters Susanne Craig and David Barstow revealed on This Week, someone from the Trump organization placed an envelope containing Trump’s 26 year-old tax return in Craig’s mailbox.  The illegal documents have now been published by the Times and the “bombshell” was the headliner on all the Sunday morning talk shows. 

The revelations have had little effect on Trump’s popularity.  Trump blew away his competition in the primary because he won the support of working people.  Matt Taibbi best described the Trump phenomena, “The new Republicans would no longer be the party of "business and the privileged," but the protector of a disenfranchised working class.  This was unplanned. If it happens, it'll be a change that takes place not because conservative leaders ever wanted it, but because voters demanded it.”

Small businesses do not create jobs.

For fifty years we have been told small businesses create jobs and if we just give tax breaks to the mega-corporations and small businesses great jobs will be created.  It’s a red herring, the real job creators are “new businesses.”  The number one thing that stops the unemployed from starting their own business is healthcare.  There is only one solution, Medicare for all.

The health care solution

Medicare for seniors is not free, over $100 dollars monthly is deducted from SS benefits to pay for Medicare.  In addition seniors are required to carry a supplemental plan and Medicare part D.  If Medicare were available to everyone in the nation, Obama Care, Medicare Advantage, Medicare Part D, Children’s Health Insurance and Medicaid could be eliminated.  Healthcare would become a public utility, freeing employers from the yoke of providing that costly benefits for their employees.

Public education solution

Public education needs to be restored.  Wall Street profit driven charter schools destroy communities.  Fathullah Gülen, who is the subject of an FBI investigation, owns the largest charter school network in the US, all of which are fully funded by US taxpayers. Gülen is the largest recipient of H1B visas, employing Turkish teachers in his 120 charters.  Time to end for-profit charters.

Banking as a public utility

The testimony of Wells Fargo CEO Stumpf revealed the business model of banks is fraud.  It is time to make banking a public utility that serves the community in which they conduct business.  The banks have proven they have no desire to obey the laws, and it’s time to end “too big to fail” and restore law and order.

Voters want change

The worst thing Trump could do is to run on the failed fifty year GOP platform.  He needs to go back to running as a champion for working people and ignore the muck thrown at him.   Hillary needs a major course correction and drop the politics of personal destruction.  If they don’t neither candidate will reach 270 electoral votes and the Ryan-led House will install Evan Mc Mullin as President.  We can’t let that happen.



By Patricia Baeten