no hero defending democracy from Trump; [he has been] exposed for using vote suppression Jim Crow tactics - even misleading a federal court to keep 198,000 Georgians from voting in Tuesday's Senate run-off.
Palast even embeds a video explaining how the con worked. That's right, the same Raffensperger (whose name roughly translates from German, "clumsy grabber," so he has that in common with Trump already). I'm surprised SS Glad Clumsygrabber didn't offer to send DJ a basket of clingstones (but does he dare to eat a peach? Is any mermaid safe?).
But that's not even the half of it. Raffensperger seems to be taking a play out of Mein Kemp his predecessor's book of electoral machinations. Georgia Governor Brad Kemp (whose German name means "footsoldier") was caught up in a scandal in 2019 when he ran for governor against Stacey Abrams and, as secretary of state -- while he was running for governor -- oversaw the greatest self-serving voting heist in history (that we know of). According to Palast, in How Trump Stole the 2020 Election,
Of the half million voters Kemp purged for supposedly moving their residence, 340,134 had never moved an inch. But now, the Lenser team found nearly 100,000 more who had moved within their county -- and therefore, they too should never have been purged. The total of wrongfully scrubbed voters was now over 400.000.
Kemp should have been chased from politics and jailed. Instead, he's governor.
Why wouldn't Trump think Glad Clumsygrabber would be up for a similar purge -- even at such a late hour -- given the spectacular corruption in Georgia on display. In the same book, Palast went on to detail how Trump, and his Republican conspirators (no theory), had stolen the 2016 presidential election -- not with the help of the Russians, but with the help of voter purges. What Trump was pleading for the other day was what his cohorts did in 2016, successfully. And, while we're it, the reason why 2020 "was one of the smoothest and most well-run elections, " according to Ben Hovland, a Democrat appointed by Trump to serve on the Election Assistance Commission, was because, this time, thank you Coronavirus (mwah), ALL THE VOTES WERE COUNTED.
Nevertheless, because the MSM so hates Trump (most sane people do), they were burying the lede. The corruption that Trump sought in Georgia was so f*cking common that had Corona not forced so many voters to mail in their ballots, drawing extraordinary media scrutiny of the process, Trump would have won re-election. If not for Corona, the 12,000 votes Trump wanted Clingstone to "find" would have been practically automatic discoveries. Let's not forget that Georgia was one of four states where Trump, even with all the scrutiny and votes counted, had results within the 1% margin -- meaning, a recount was needed.
The MSM couched their coverage of Trump's phone call to Georgia's Secretary of State in hands-off language, because he's not the target of their wrath (although he should be, too). Instead, the NYT was respectful (as they should be) in their approach, never mentioning the 198.000 votes purged, nor connecting said votes with Trump's request (as they should have -- for balance). In the piece, when Trump "alleged that 250,000 to 300,000 ballots were 'dropped mysteriously into the rolls,'" it almost sounds like he's pissed off that the Kemp-like numbers of disenfranchised voters hadn't been delivered for him. The votes weren't dropped in; it's just that they weren't dropped out -- this time.
We read that Trump, in his call, threatened legal action against Cling Peaches and state lawyer Ryan Germany (what the f*ck is it with Georgia and Germans?), which is just plain funny, and sounds vaguely like comic book extortion (you know, the malignant wink). If Trump were a Mafia don, as the MSM has made him, surely there would have been 12,000 beheaded peaches in Raffenclunger's bed, bleeding their sweet juices all over him. "Heilig saftiger Pfirsich!" he might have exclaimed and got on his high horse to Germany, so that the two could putsch out the offending ballots.
But what really rubbed my gollywag the wrong way is not getting from the MSM the source of the phone call -- the specific agent of delivery. WaPo, which broke the story, doesn't say who helped them "obtain" the tape. The Guardian doesn't say. Even the bolshy World Socialist Web Site goes limply along with WaPo without questioning the source. The NYT does tell us that they "acquired" the tape of the phone conversation from some unknown source at the secretary of state's office. Which brings up the question of access to the conversation and motives. It also raises the question of whether the "leak" was the result of whistleblowing -- you know, if you hear something wrong, report it. Well, the "pressure exerted" by Trump was wrong and impeachable, but the Press doesn't ask these questions about access, motives or whistleblowing. Like the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that reported on the Olympic bombing in 1996, they're okay with reporting with un-named sources. And most of the time reporting on White House doings over the years, they rely on Voice of God reporting.
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