So we have some challenges. Above all the Bernie people MUST convert this campaign into a tangible long-term force.
The Dems have talked a bit about vote stripping, but they need to do more. And they MUST stop ignoring electronic election theft.
JB: The Koch Brothers are behind Ryan? How do you know? What are their plans? Wasn't there a meeting a while back with the Kochs and our pal Karl Rove and "others' to discuss anti-Trump strategy? Is this what came out of it?
HW: It's been circulating on the net. And it makes sense. Have you read DARK MONEY? It's terrifying. Here are four brother with billions & they spend their lives suing each other"and their mother!!!
JB: I have not yet read Jane Mayer's Dark Money. The subtitle is pretty ominous: T he Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. I'm sure the Koch Brothers loved it. Let them sue one another until they're all broke. Who cares? What concerns me is that two of them are super-meddling with our elections. There's definitely something wrong with a system that allows that. But this is only half the equation. While all this is going on, there are also all those obstacles for the Democrats. And the leadership continues to be oblivious, to all of our peril. We haven't been able to get through to either the average reader or the leadership in all the time we've been talking about this. It's been more than a decade for me and probably longer for you. Before we get to the Bernie minions, how do we break through this time, in time?
HW: I don't know why the Democrats do not deal with this. They've been attacking Bob Fitrakis and me ever since we showed how the 2004 election was stolen. They haven't given Greg Palast or Bev Harris the time of day. This is more than a decade after the theft of TWO presidential elections.
They are just starting to deal with the strip side of Jim Crow disenfranchisement. But millions will be denied the vote this fall. And then, Bernie and the rest of the Dems continue to ignore the electronic flipping. I don't get it.
JB: It's bad; I agree completely. But you usually have suggestions and recommendations, Harvey. Have you given up?
HW: No, we never give up. We need to have a movement that works as hard as possible to get rid of all these Jim Crow restrictions.
We need automatic universal voter registration, a four-day holiday for voting, more rather than less precincts for voting, universal hand counted paper ballots, with the polls run by students and elders at $15/hour.
We also need money out of politics, an end to the Electoral College, a stop on gerrymandering and public funded campaigns.
This agenda is essential to democracy. We need to win it.
JB: I can't fault you on that agenda or your sense of urgency. Anything you'd like to add before we wrap this up?
HW: It's easy sometime to lose heart. We hope Bernie can become president. But even if he does, we MUST have a grassroots movement working for sanity and social change. That means all the millions who've been so energized must stay that way no matter what happens this fall.
Meanwhile, this "strip and flip" destruction* of our national democracy must end. Only when we have a fair and reliable vote count can we look forward to a society capable of surviving and thriving.
JB: Thanks for talking with me again, Harvey. It's not always fun, but I always learn something.
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