Voter Fraud in the USA: The Same Tricks as in the Former USSR

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Ironically, as the American presidential election draws nearer, concerns raised by public interest groups about the election’s fairness and integrity are starting to mirror concerns routinely raised by Western-supported NGOs in Russia. Ballot box stuffing, bussing suspicious-looking groups of people from one polling station to another, strange things happening during early voting… you name it. Interestingly, the same “political technologies” that the USA accused Russia or Belarus of using are now used in the USA… the American press reports it, albeit with less fanfare than when reporting similar irregularities in the former USSR.

For example, the New York Times, citing True the Vote, a citizens’ group focusing on combating election fraud, reported there were several buses “carrying dozens of voters showing up at polling stations during the recent Wisconsin election”. Catherine Engelbrecht, the head of True the Vote, said, “Magically, all of them needed to register and vote at the same time. Do you think, maybe, they registered under false pretences? Probably so”. Another True the Vote activist told a conservative activists’ meeting that her colleagues saw a bus during a recent vote in San Diego that unloaded “organised” voters “who didn’t appear to be from this country”.

Sounds familiar? What about a report of the Pew Center on various states in the USA, issued in February this year, which found out that more than 1.8 million dead people remained on the voter rolls and that about 2.8 million people registered in more than one state? These figures look actually more impressive than all the Russian opposition’s reports on irregularities during the Russian presidential election in March, which US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton considered big enough to name our elections “neither free nor fair” one day after the vote. Moreover, the opposition reported massive fraud during absentee voting and dead people on voter rolls, but not in the millions. In the USA, the matter actually concerns TENS OF MILLIONS… 12 million registrations contained flawed addresses, the Pew Center report said.

Facing such irregularities (some would call it outright fraud), Americans want more controls over the election’s fairness. This is the cause for the controversy around voter registration IDs. Republicans push for new laws that’d require voters to have a valid picture ID when voting. Democrats, for their part, accuse the GOP of trying to disenfranchise poor voters, as well as ethnic minorities, which are more likely to vote Democratic than WASPs with excellent IDs. In recent years, 11 states passed voter ID requirements, thus, weakening the old American freedom of not having to carry a passport inside your own country. The US Supreme Court struck down several such laws on voter IDs as discriminatory or carrying risks of “voter disenfranchisement”.

VOR interviewed Alfred Santangelo, the author of a book on voter suppression during the 2012 election. According to Mr Santangelo, voters have to travel hundreds of miles to get valid voter ID in some states in the USA. He saw it as a part of a larger voter suppression policy, denounced by the American Civil Liberties’ Union (ACLU), widely blamed for the defeats of Democratic candidates Al Gore and John Kerry in  2000 and 2004. In 2012, ironically, the rightwing of the political spectrum accused the authorities of tampering with the vote’s results. Ms Engelbrecht’s True the Vote group grew out of a Tea Party support association, King Street Patriots. Now, as the New York Times claimed, there’s a “variety of well-financed organisations, many unabashed in their desire to defeat President Obama”.

Just recently, in Russia, we saw a much larger number of better-financed organisations unabashed in their desire to facilitate the defeat of President Vladimir Putin. However, somehow, even mentioning this fact was a sign of “bad taste” in the mainstream Western press. Obviously, the press worldwide has greater problems reporting such things closer to home than in some distant venue.

21 September 2012

Dmitri Babich

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_09_20/Voter-fraud-in-the-US-same-technologies-as-in-Russia-and-Belarus/

Editor’s Note:

For the USA to point fingers at others about voting irregularities is sheer hypocrisy and hubris. I need only mention the “conservative” “Solid South”… it was “solid” and “conservative” because of stuffed ballot boxes, racist voting restrictions, and general societal dishonesty (“Landslide Lyndon”, anyone?). On the other side of the political coin, I need only mention Cook County and Tammany Hall. “I saw my opportunities, and I took ‘em”, as George Washington Plunkitt put it. The Newark machine was so famous for voting the dead that an editorial cartoon showed the local Dem boss blowing a trumpet and the dead rising from the grave… on Election Day. Things haven’t changed, particularly, not in Republican areas. The current GOP is an amoral godless buccaneer organisation dedicated to the enrichment and empowerment of the Affluent Effluent at all costs… its motto is, “The Public be Damned”.

Orthodox people should be aware that the loud konvertsy support the Mammon-worshipping New GOP… that means that they spit on everything that Orthodox people fought for in America. In short, they’re either bosses, boss-wannabes, or lickspittles of the bosses (mostly, the last sort, who’re a far worse set than the first two)… with an “attitude” to match. Do we really need such immoral and effectively-atheist greedsters amongst us?

BMD 

29 July 2011. The Pot Calls the Kettle Black, Syosset Edition

Bobby and Lyonyo are playing up to the ignorant fancies of the rightwing konvertsy… for now. They’re going to fall out, and in short order, mark my word… Bobby will try to knife Lyonyo (and vice versa), and the konvertsy will find both of them “not pure enough” for their tastes. It’s certainly NOT boring…

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It’ll certainly be to the advantage of Paffhausen and to Bobby’s camp if they can prove that Dickie’s involved with something “homosexual”. For example, there are stories out there (if I’ve heard ‘em, they’re widespread… I don’t claim “insider” knowledge on this) that he “groped” Fr John Dresko (presently Rector of St Paul parish in Las Vegas NV… Wood’s mother, Nadine, attends liturgy there). That may or may not be true, but it’s a fact that Dresko’s a dirty-handed former Syosset operative… and part of Bobby’s faction. Bobby’s playing up to the crackbrained notions of the konvertsy gang, who’re spinning the split in the OCA as “noble Paffhausen, who signed the Manhattan Declaration” vs “Mark Stokoe, who lives with another man”… let’s not forget that Dickie had a hand in Bobby’s downfall with the tape he made in Moscow. I wouldn’t be surprised if Bobby’s behind Wood’s fall. All the not-so-clean players at high levels in the OCA may be thinking the same thing… they’re wondering who’s next, especially if things don’t break the way Bobby wants them to… that is, Paffhausen retains his puppet sinecure, Potapov remains the Éminence Grise of the OCA-ROCOR duopoly, Bobby receives public absolution, and Bobby and his cabal retake their place as the power behind the throne in Syosset (the fly in the ointment is Lyonyo… Bobby’s going to try to cut his throat, which may bugger it all in the end).

Bobby’s playing with fire… all too many saw him at Veselka’s in the old days, and know what’s what. All too many know the truth about him and HIS proclivities. It’s why he fell, in the first instance. Bobby got on famously with Feodosy, Herman, and Pierre… all those “in the know” need no prompting to appreciate what I’m talking about. Bobby’s trying to take down Dickie as a perv, so, Bobby’s past may come back and bite him. After all, Bobby’s not subtle, nor is he an educated or cultured man. He’s clever, there’s no doubt on that; he’s a political animal, a George Washington Plunkitt in a riassa (without the wit and wisdom). He did extort (legally) 250 Gs from the OCA via a thinly-veiled threat… someone stupid couldn’t do that. So far, his close connections with Feodosy, Pierre, and Herman haven’t stuck to him… but that doesn’t mean that they won’t.

Don’t forget, the konvertsy have the conceit that they’re “pure”… that God has deputed them to “purify” the Church. This is especially so in the case of the former Episkies, and most definitely so in the case of Touchstonistas such as Reardon, Freddie M-G, and Mattingly… yes, the Terrible Trio named are officially in the AOCANA, but the konvertsy are Gnostics who ignore Church boundaries… they’re “above” all that, dontcha know! The first two are former Episkie “culture warriors” who lost a power struggle in the TEC… as a perceptive priest-friend of mine in the MP put it, “The Anglicans said ‘good riddance to bad rubbish’, and there’s more there than meets the eye at first glance”. Mattingly’s a former Baptist Sectarian with pretensions of being an “expert”… obviously, he was one of those sorts ashamed of his “Born-Again” roots. Yet, the konvertsy crowd ignores the glaring evidence that Fathausen fibs outrageously about his intimate relationship with Gleb Podmoshensky (remember GP? He appears to keep popping up to dog JP at every turn)… and the stories that won’t die concerning Mel Webber and Gerasim Eliel.

Bobby does have the lumber over Fathausen… after all, JP served openly with Izzy Brittain, and JP continues to shelter Peterson, even though it’s openly bandied about that BP’s a closeted gay. There’s one thing about the konvertsy that JP’s forgetting… they’re manically single-minded. Make no doubt on it, Bobby’s going to tell JP, “Do what I say, or, I’ll go public with what I know about you, GP, and BP”… that is, Bobby thinks that he’s got things sewed up in the bag. However, he’s already made threats against Reeves, and that’s a stupid move. In addition, Lyonyo may have his reasons for deep-sixing Dickie, but he’s no ally of Bobby’s… nor is Potapov. Potapov’s a former government official (he’s rumoured to have American intel ties… so much so that RF Embassy personnel avoid his parish, even though it’s closer to the embassy and more traditional than St Nick’s) and Lyonyo’s a CFR member with State Department ties (he got his daughter a job at the International Herald Trib). Bobby’s an embarrassment to them… he’s useful, but a “low” sort. If Bobby tried to move against Lyonyo (probably, by striking at Lyonyo’s protégé, Stokoe), Lyonyo could go “public” with what everyone knows about Bobby. That would discredit him with the konvertsy permanently.

That’s not to mention the angle with Fr Tikhon in Moscow. Obviously, Fr Tikhon knows about Dickie’s drinking problem, and, maybe, he knows about his proclivities as well. Fr Tikhon doesn’t play kid’s games, so, this is why his relationship with Dickie may have reached the breaking point. Bobby and Love BT, amongst others, contend that Dickie’s an RF Humint asset, passing intel from the American and other foreign embassies to the FSB/SVR. I tend to think the opposite… probably, he was an American asset controlled from the US Embassy in Moscow. It’d explain why Lyonyo didn’t move against him earlier. Obviously, Dickie’s cover at the Centre was blown in some unmentioned way (that’s not come out, it’s fruitless to speculate on what it is… there’s simply no intel whatsoever); he was of no more use to his controllers, giving Bobby an opportunity to strike (I believe that the RF gave him the standard “get out of Dodge in 48 hours” order… that’s how unmasked oppo assets are usually treated). Mind you, I don’t believe for a moment that Bobby’s allied with Lyonyo… their feud is that serious and that deep. Lyonyo merely decided that defending Dickie wasn’t worth the risk, so, he cut Dickie’s throat without any shame, pity, shilly-shallying, or compunction; their years of working together meant nought to Lyonyo and Potapov… “It ain’t personal, it’s only business”.

Despite it all, I’m a believer… I believe that God WILL put things right… but only if WE act as His instruments. What kind of Church do you want for your kids and grandkids? Think on that with some care before answering it…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Friday 29 July 2011

Albany NY