Vox Populi
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Daniel R. Cobb: Turn Left Here
What a god-awful year. 2017 has been a year of anguished outrage and quiet condolences, of trying to find a way to cope with the travesty that brought us Donald Trump and the aftermath. To my Progressive friends out there, and friends who are re-examining their conservative political views: We like to say that America is great and in many ways, it certainly is. But the US is not immune to corruption driven by the power of raw greed. For many people, unrestrained greed, the lust for ever-more wealth becomes over-powering, an all-consuming and unreachable goal. Wealthy politicians are not immune to greed, and this becomes lethal for democracies when those writing the laws, write them exclusively for the benefit of themselves and those in their rarefied class. At the federal level, this is where we are at today. The stratospheric national debt, the threat of national insolvency, the ascendance of the power of corporations over citizens, the ongoing abandonment of the middle class and the poor, the rabid contempt for minorities and women, the elevation of war as an economic imperative, the loss of a habitable planet for millions of humans due to climate change, all of these urgent issues and many others mean nothing to this president and this congress, who pursue personal wealth and power above all else.
With this government in control, we are facing the most fundamental, most critical issues that we as a nation and even as a species, will ever face, with our eyes closed and in complete denial, blinded by greed. This government is not governing. This government is operating like an organized crime syndicate, robbing from the middle class and future generations and ensuring that those generations inherit a failed, bankrupt democracy and a planet despoiled. With this government, we are witnessing a great turning point, when the most influential nation on Earth disowns the future. This is a travesty with impact spanning many generations.
I don’t know what 2018 will bring. I want to be optimistic, but so much is at stake. But I do know that our dedicated and steady participation in our democracy is paramount to overcoming any of these challenges. Power loves a vacuum. From voting our conscience in every election to marching in the streets at every outrage, we must be involved. More than any other, this generation cannot afford apathy. Don’t let the bad news beat you down. Our strength is in our unity and our cause is just. Let us make 2018 a pivotal year.
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Copyright 2017 Daniel R. Cobb
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Vox Populi 
The most important fact is that Trump did not win fairly and perhaps not even legally. His vote count in the EC was inflated by extremely small vote margins in the 3 closest states: a total of about 38,000 votes. The total Electoral votes from those states was MORE than his margin of victory in the Electoral College. **** ONLY 38 THOUSAND VOTES GAVE US TRUMP ****. It is inconceivable that the Russian corruption of the political dialogue, heavily weighted against Clinton, which everyone accepts as fact, did not push the vote count this small amount over the line!
BUT IT GETS WORSE.
A small group lead by @mikefarb1 is doing exhaustive statistics on the official voting records from all the counties, first in those closest states and continuing into other close states. The results are reported at votesleuth.org. They are consistent with results where significant numbers have been changed from normal voting patterns. The analysis suggests that hundreds of thousands of votes were changed in those 3 states, more than sufficient to have reversed the results, thereby negating the will of the people. Please look at these results and the explanations behind them. I BELIEVE WE HAVE AN ILLEGITIMATE PRESIDENT. This makes it all the more egregious that he is doing so much damage to the country.
I believe that in addition to the efforts to remove Trump by impeachment or the 25th Amendment process and to defeat the enabling congress persons, we must urgently mount an effort to establish evidence and legal and constitutional arguments to invalidate the election and reverse or redo it after ensuring that the interference and hacking cannot happen again. Just proving collusion would not be full justice because the election was actually STOLEN.
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I read the article you linked. It is somewhat technical and apparently requires an education in statistics (which I don’t have) but it seems to suggest that in many precincts and states across the country, as early election results were coming in, early voters in individual precincts were favoring Clinton, but as the day and evening wore on, more and more voters voted for Trump. The ramp of transition from Clinton to Trump in these precincts is uniform, even slightly logarithmic, and unless we are to believe that across the country most Clinton voters rise early and most Trump voters don’t get up before 4 pm, this data suggests that in key states, tens or hundreds of thousands Clinton votes may have been flipped for Trump. I must say that the article does a poor job of summarizing the argument. If legitimate, this information should be shared with Democratic senators and the FBI. The Federal Elections Commission is staffed by presidential appointees; most likely all Trump cronies, so don’t expect much help there.
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Reblogged this on daniel r. cobb.
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As bad as 2017 has been, living with the fact that a person such as Trump could actually be elected in our country, 2016 was worst for me. For me, 2016 was a slow, day to day, week to week torcherous self-acknowledgement of our divisions. They have always been there but 2016 made it much more difficult to shrug and say “well…that’s just the way it is.” Sides had to be taken.
2017, to me, has shown that Trump or, more specifically, what he stands for, is not so easily going to come to fruition. His election and actions may have been what we needed as a country; the cliched “Wake-up call” I hope so.
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I couldn’t agree more. That Trump could gather as much support as he did 2016, and then be elected, was of course, devastating. That spoke volumes about the divisions in the country, and it also revealed an elections process that is deeply flawed, with an Electoral College that vetoes the popular vote. Lastly, it pointed out how severely vulnerable our elections are to interference in the age of global social media – and this Republican government is doing little-to-nothing about that.
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Double Amen!! – to both the original post and the above comment. With a first step shucking those loaded and constraining labels – Democrats and Republicans. Remembering there are good hearts and good minds in both camps. Instead, working together simply as human beings to do what is best for all people, our country,and the world.
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Amen! Who can quarrel with Daniel Cobbs’ assessment of 2017? Only people who are willfully blind, and people who stand – or think they stand – to gain by the President’s terrifying policies. Active participation and mass mobilization are the only viable responses to the GOP’s cynical and increasingly transparent ethical bankruptcy. Anything less will allow the country – and in due course, the planet – to slide into blatant anarchy, corruption and unimaginable environmental degradation. The face of our democracy and our eco-system hang in the balance.
Meanwhile, Republicans should heed the words of a man they profess to revere.
“What profit it a man if he gain the world and loose his soul?”
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Indeed, Mr. Burston. Great comments. Democracy without public activism doesn’t survive.
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