F**k the Russians! Clinton is the threat!
The Russians?!
I get a kick out of the Democrats, dumb Republicans and the obedient media harping about how the Russians might be trying to screw with our elections. Hell, we have a whole lot more to fear from the felon/candidate scamming us than the Russians. There has never been a better time to address the various voting discrepancies that have been intentionally inserted into our election process. They came into existence for two purposes: cheating and incumbency. You were told they exist because your representatives love you and don't want you inconvenienced by a silly little election.
Absentee Ballots
America! What a country! Why didn't I take up politics for a living? Oh yeah, I remember. If I ran for office the incident with the stripper and small farm animals would come up and I'd be ruined. But if I have learned anything by covering the political zoo it is that many (most?) Americans LOVE to be treated as idiots. We love it when politicians say we are too weak, or too lazy to live our lives. We cheer when we are coddled and treated like children. And it is so easy to do! The ruling class has cheapened our voting franchise by making it easier and easier to exercise it. And the result has been fewer and fewer of us vote. The shrinking numbers who do vote are increasingly made up of those who are clambering for more infantile handling, party zealots and the dwindling few who still cherish the franchise. This is because when you make something cheap and easy, it loses its value. People generally don't look at voting as an important franchise anymore because it has been treated as nonsense by those in power. Take absentee voting as an example. It was created for specific people. At any given time there are tens of thousands of American living abroad. Many of these people are military and diplomats. Many more are business people or folks with homes overseas. But they are still Americans and they still pay taxes (more so, now that Obama has put the screws to foreign banks and is skulking around the world looking for every measly cent he can find to tax). The absentee ballot was created because a Marine working in our Embassy in Germany can't fly home on election day. It was extended to people who are genuinely bed-ridden or house bound. At some point, a shady opportunist came up with the idea of saying, "Oh! You poor voters! Let us make things even easier for you. You don't have to be vested by the effort of actually showing up on election day and participating in an important community event. We'll just send you one of these absentee thingies and you can return it at your convenience." Along with further isolating us from each other, or making life in a political echo chamber more attractive, this method is ripe with fraud. Cities and states with good voter data now have the motivation to use that information to make absentee ballots more available to some and not to others. Look at what was done to the military in 2012 and 2014. In many cases the ballots showed up when it was too late to use them. Hmmm, the party in the White House was not popular with the Armed Forces. This does not mean it was done on purpose. I have no way to know that. But what it does mean is that it can be. Given the abysmal ethical record of this administration, it may well have been intentional. Often, if the number of absentee ballots doesn't appear large enough to sway the voting that has occurred by election day, some states and federal entities have chosen not to count the absentee ballots. This is just a matter of announcing it and it is forgotten. Now you have two problems. One is that it is easy to lie about such things. The prevailing media is lazy and not interested in really making waves. When people like me raise a stink, we are labeled "conspiracy freaks". So the opportunity to cheat is huge. Also, we are left without a major part of the election record. What can we learn about the sentiments of our military and people overseas if we toss the votes in the trash? Rectification: Go back to using absentee ballots for those who are truly unable to get to the polls. Let the voter invest in the franchise. The simple act of going to the polls causes the voter to be engaged and vested in the act of voting.
Early Voting
Many early voters in North Carolina likely came away from last weekend questioning their vote. A full two months before election day, weeks before the first debate among the candidates, some states are unethical enough to encourage voting now. It doesn't speak well of those who participate either. Election Day is just that for good reason. We have a constitution that has us install our new government after a peaceful contest on a date certain. To accomplish this, we designated a point, as close to the date of installment as possible, to use all that we have learned to pick the next office holders. This provides voters with a sense of certainty that their vote MAY have value. As in markets, politics or any competitive engagement, certainty (as much as it can be provided) fosters confidence. Turning the vote into a two month exercise strips the certainty from the process. What would early voters be thinking if Hillary Clinton has another bout of "pneumonia"? Perhaps this episode of "pneumonia" leaves her with a limp and slurred speech. What do we do with the early votes if Vice President Joe 'Duh" Biden steps in? What if the early voters wouldn't have voted for Duh? In the case of legitimate absentee ballots, we have done everything we can to have isolated/overseas persons vote as close to election day as possible. But to casually let everyone cast ballots now when the run up is the most revealing part of the race is absurd on its face. And the whole idea allowing such early voting was so politicians could say to their constituency, "Look how much I love you! I made re-electing me so easy for you!" This to say nothing of Article 2, Clause 4 of the Constitution which we celebrate this week! "The Congress may determine the Time of chusing [sic] the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States." (Emphasis added) The Constitutional Convention was bringing certainty and minimizing the opportunity for shenanigans on the part of the people in power at the time of an election. And how simple such shenanigans become when you have thousands of ballots, electronic or paper sitting for months. A very small number of people with lots to lose and everything to gain, especially with today's technology, can do a lot of damage to the legitimate vote. I know. You're saying, "But MJ, those votes are protected! How could anyone manipulate them?" Right! Only certain super human beings are capable of taking possession of the right lead wire or plastic seals. There has never in all of history been a case where such devices were defeated, right? Please. And the electronic ballot are child's play for the right people. When Al Franken was running for the Senate, his race was so close the outcome was impossible to call. Then a few days later, the votes of an entire precinct were found in the trunk of a Democratic operative's car. Not surprisingly, they were almost all for Franken. Did anyone get arrested for improper handling of ballots? Were the ballots disqualified? Noooo! That would have been the honest thing to do. Sadly, in that area there were no honest people around; only "progressives". And the longer you have votes laying around, the more opportunity you give people like this to tamper with them. Rectification: End Early voting. Let the contest run up to election day. There are thousands of people out there who would have loved to have taken their votes back and voted for Romney as the truth of Benghazi oozed out in 2012. Things happen on October. The only people who benefit by early voting are the ones running out of steam, message of validation as election day closes in.
Which Brings Us to the Paperless Ballot
I once asked a question of an IT guy while he was setting up a system at our DoD facility. I asked why, when the internet was new, but we could see where it was going, did DoD not set up its own closed network instead of using the public network? He said it wasn't necessary because we have 28 bit encryption. Nobody could break that. I have heard the same reaction from people who favor a paperless ballot. Excuse me, but didn't the Germans and the Japanese say the same thing about Enigma and Magic, respectively? Haven't we been burned enough over the years to know that nothing is unbreakable, inviolable? Besides, you don't have to actually hack an existing computer system and break the codes to manipulate outcomes. The real manipulation can come before the vote even happens. It would be easy for people in a large metropolitan area to put malicious algorithms in an existing program that will create a different count than what was actually voted. Rectification: Bring back the paper ballot. It can be hand checked, bubble form, punch out. But there has to be a valid check on the vote. No honest person believes that an unchecked computer program is a valid record. No honest person believes computers are invulnerable to hacking or rigging. Quite the opposite, they are the best device for rigging outcomes.
Voter ID
"Progressives"! You remember those folks, don't you? They are the most closed-minded, insulting, illiberal, anti-progress, racists on the planet. They believe that we must be protected from ourselves. Only THEY are brilliant enough to make decisions for themselves. We must be controlled. Except when it comes to voting. There, they want no rules. They want their supporters to vote early, vote often and vote under as many names as they can find in the obituary column. Once, during a book-signing, a woman groaned when I brought up voter ID and fraud. "That is such a cliché," she said. That's right! The pesky thing about clichés is that they become clichés because they are true. There is wide-spread voter fraud in this country. There are people being bussed from district to district casting illegal ballots. There are illegal aliens voting in our elections. There are dead people voting. Take another look at the Franken campaign here. This is because our voting franchise has been so cheapened (by our own antipathy as well as "progressive" corruption) that no one is willing to deal with it. Whenever a state says it wants to have voter ID to prevent fraudulent voting, "progressives" show their racists colors. Minorities, they say, especially blacks, are incapable of acquiring the proper ID the state would require. Why? Are the "progressives" insinuating the blacks are lazy or stupid? ( The answer to that question is YES! That is exactly what "progressives" believe.) In the case of some recent attempts to require voter ID, states put in the bill provisions to assist people is getting the ID. This, of course, was still not good enough for the pig-headed "progressives". In fact while telling minorities directly that they are incapable of doing what white people can do, they are claiming conservatives are racist for insisting everyone be treated equally and the voting process be kept honest. Orwell must be banging on his coffin lid screaming "ASSHOLES!" Rectification: Assume all races, sexes, NASCAR fans, etc, are equal and perfectly capable of acquiring a document from the DMV. And if a state or city wants to go the extra mile and assist the elderly or informed is getting the documents, GREAT!
It Could All Happen With This Election!
When discussing these abuses of the voting process after an election like Reagan vs Mondale, it doesn't seem to matter much. Mondale carried his home state. That was about it. But no one knew it was going to be such a blowout before-hand. The upcoming election is looking like it will be far tighter than that. When you look at the margins each candidate is hoping to squeak out in battleground states it doesn't require the mind of a conspiracy freak to see that fraud could change the course of history. Again, there is no constitutional basis for any of these voting scams. In addition, we have one of the most corrupt candidates in American history. She is backed up by a corrupt White House, Treasury and Justice Department (including the FBI). It would be far from impossible to rig enough population centers to create any kind of outcome you want. And it would be done by taking advantage of a combination of all the malpractices mentioned above. It's too late to do anything about this election. If it is stolen, so be it. We probably couldn't prove it anyway. It's our fault for allowing it to happen. But we can gain at least some confidence in the future. Start now by demanding that all subsequent elections be validated on paper. Matt Jordan is a travel writer, political commentator and author of 16 20 24. Get your SIGNED copy here! Kindle Version, STREET POLITICS: It Ain't Your Daddy's GOP Anymore! 50% of all author proceeds go to fighting Multiple Sclerosis!!
Serious Americans Need To Read This!
Are you one of the 60% who disapprove of the two "major" candidates? Would you like to take control back from the ruling class. Are you a Democrat sickened by the prospect of voting for Hillary? Are you a Republican who realizes "the Donald" is a clown and a fraud? Would you like to do something about it? Let's see some guts!