218 Comments

At the close of the Constitutional Convention on September 17, 1787, as Ben Franklin left the hall in Philadelphia, he was asked, “What kind of government have you given us, Dr. Franklin?” He replied: "A republic, if you can keep it."

It is, was, and will always be our job to keep the government in check. If we do not, then we will end up back at square one and become slaves once again. No one is going to come to our rescue... except ourselves.

So with that in mind, if in reading this you've never heard of the following:

Asset Forfeiture, NSLs, ALEC, AIPAC

FISA Courts, Congressional Insider Trading

Judicial Standing, Deferred Prosecution

Parallel Construction, Stingray Devices

EO 12333, XKeyscore, COINTELPRO

Pentagon Papers, Gary Webb

Operation Mockingbird

Operation Northwoods

Operation Paperclip

Project Monarch

FASAB 56

MKUltra

Or worse, you've heard of them but can't be bothered to care, then like it or not, you are one reason among many that we are on a one-way flight straight to Hell. To the corporations and their puppet politicians, your ignorance and apathy are worth more than all the slaves in China. Because it is your indifference that enables these bottom feeding cockroaches to thrive in the dark and rob you of your wealth and liberty.

This is not political, it's universal. Both of the puppet parties you think you get to choose from every two years are completely infected by blanket webs of corruption and have long ago mortgaged their allegiance to their corporate masters. And what these leeches need more than anything to survive and thrive is a stupid, apathetic populace with red tags on their ears who will lap at their feet and believe every lie they feed them, or worse, are too busy staring at their smart phones to even care that they're being lied to.

The natural state of humanity is to slide into slavery and conflict. Our American bulwark against that decay was built by the blood, sweat, tears, hard work, and personal sacrifice of countless millions. These people gave everything to build the pillars of justice that protect and sustain you, and it is your responsibility to give something back and sacrifice a little in order to maintain those pillars and pass them on to the next generation. Anything less is a betrayal to those who broke their back to build the structure you are now standing on. So put down your Facebook and start paying attention to the things going on around you before that structure crumbles to nothing beneath your feet and you become a slave once again.

Remember, a nation of sheep breeds a government of wolves and you get more of what you tolerate. So turn off your Goddamn TV, turn on your mind, and get out there and stop tolerating it before you wake up one morning robbed of your remaining liberty and you no longer have a choice.

Someone far wiser than I once pointed out that: 'Power without oversight is the fastest route out of a democracy'. Your responsibility then, is to render that oversight.

Joseph de Maistre said: 'Every citizenry has the government they deserve...'

We are the ones we've been waiting for...

-https://tritorch.com/illFaresTheLand

Expand full comment

you had me at "no one is coming to save you."

Expand full comment

El Gato, we encourage you to rethink the idea of direct democracy in a new frame work. Simple decentralization - a leaderless society.

The tyranny of the masses problem is much easier to solve for than corruption. Corruption is our biggest problem, and a leaderless system is actually the solution.

Tyranny of the masses problem is solvable with better systems, education and epistemology.

New direct democracy systems - properly called “leaderless systems” using Human Swarm Intelligence are the answer to all of this corruption.

The corruption point is the politician. We don’t need them.

As for tyranny, it is actually not that hard to prevent with direct democracy. People are just too scared to try, like flying planes or using electricity.

We can prove it. https://open.substack.com/pub/joshketry/p/how-to-fix-corrupt-government-in?r=7oa9d&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

Expand full comment

“Tyranny of the masses problem is solvable with better systems, education and epistemology.”

Have you ever actually met human beings though? Better systems and education and epistemology don’t prevent things like selfishness, laziness, and greed which are huge problems not just in the politicians but in the voting booth. Those things won’t create good morals, good character, or a willingness to self sacrifice which is what is actually required to prevent tyranny of the masses.

The idea that a leaderless anything would last more than a hot minute is also rather ignorant of human nature. Get two people together and one of them is going to emerge a leader in very short order. Get a group of people together wether they are preschool children or brilliant mathematicians and a hierarchy will form and someone will rise to the top. Hierarchies are a necessary part of the social system there can be no cooperation without it. That’s true in lions, it’s true in chimps, it’s true in every other social mammal we know anything about and it’s true in people.

Expand full comment

there is no utopia, human nature will not allow it. Any system put forth will in a minute become corrupted.

Expand full comment

How do you define the scope of decisions, though?

Expand full comment

There is no tyranny of the masses problem.the masses are irrelevant. See Gilens of Princeton for more details.

There is always a tyranny of the elites problem, especially with democratically elected republics. Would a plebiscite vote $110billion for Ukraine?

Expand full comment

And leave everything to the unelected bureaucracy to carry out? No thanks.

Expand full comment

What are those of us with no power or voice supposed to do to stop the farmer from pulling us from the herd? Voting is meaningless, liking tweets and comments on Substack is also a meaningless exercise, trying to discuss these things with friends and family is met with glazed over eyes or worse, etc. So what, what? are we supposed to do? I can resist but my resistance is no match for the farmers machine.

Expand full comment

Memento. We are doing much better than we may think here at Substack.

I have 4 buddies and 3 neighbors who participate under pseudonyms. And a few that never comment.

I was very surprised when I discovered that.

Expand full comment

Very true, Ryan.

I just started doing some writing for a substack I've been reading for months that deals with topics most people just don't want to touch with a barge pole (the real perps of the Bolshevik Revolution, the JQ, etc).

Based on the numbers of likes and comments the posts were getting, I thought the readership was really small, but once I got access to the Dashboard I found out there was a list of free subscribers so long that I couldn't scroll down to the bottom of it.

There is way more dissent out there than I think people realize. We are just very isolated from each other in a lot of cases. But times they are a-changing.

Your comments on this stack are very good for morale, BTW. Don't underestimate the importance of that!!

Expand full comment

Ah Thanks! And, likewise. Let's fight the good fight!

Expand full comment

I read your article “cry me a river white boy.” Thank you! Great piece!! It’s so nice to find like minded individuals in these comments. It seems rare.

Expand full comment

Yes, it seems rare, but not as rare as it used to be. Thank you for your feedback - I'm especially happy that the article seems to have resonated with lots of female readers. Our guys need to know we've got their backs! The feminists don't speak for us.

Expand full comment

Your article resonated with me, but also brought up so many guilty feelings of my younger days when I believed the same. I can see now how indoctrinated I became and it angers me. The reason I saw through it all was a combination of many things, but mainly because I became a mom of two little white boys (and a daughter). Anyway, thank you for the article (and your response).

Expand full comment

Keeping morale up has been of utmost importance over the last few years. I can't stress this enough. I agree, there are a lot of us out there. Rain drops are small but enough of them cause big floods. Everyone has to do their bit.

Expand full comment
Comment deleted
Jan 10
Comment deleted
Expand full comment

Hi Steve!...:)

Expand full comment

I am going to reply to my own question because I realized there is something I can do: Support those with power and voice and courage with my money and by helping to amplify these efforts. To that end, I just read an article by Chris Rufo about a Texas whistleblower doctor who is being prosecuted by the Biden administration for revealing sex change operations on minors at his hospital.

Here is the article if you are interested: https://christopherrufo.com/p/texas-childrens-hospital-whistleblower?publication_id=1248321&post_id=140537037&isFreemail=true&r=2l0fs&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

And then, if you are so inclined, contribute to this doctor's legal defense:

https://www.givesendgo.com/texas_whistleblower?sharemsg=display

(apologies to the bad cat if this is a highjacking)

Expand full comment

NICE!

Expand full comment

And that he chooses givesendgo is a signal.

Expand full comment

This is The Way.

Expand full comment

Great question memento. The answer is:

Massive widespread civic participation is required to solve this problem. The corrupt tinpot dictators that infest our every branch of government thrive on both our apathy and absence, and so we must suffocate and constrain them by showing up and getting in their grill as often as we possibly can. Show them they are hopelessly outnumbered. Make clear to these parasites that we are hawkishly watching their every move (the scarce good ones will embrace these enforcement actions because they are actually there to serve the republic rather than themselves).

Without this vigilance you will find that to the corporations and their puppet politicians, your ignorance and apathy are worth more than all the slaves in China. Because it is your indifference that enables these bottom feeding cockroaches to thrive in the dark and rob you of your wealth and liberty. The answer to this problem has been with us from the start:

The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.

―Plato

I wrote a whole article on how to solve this here: https://tritorch.substack.com/p/apathy-is-the-fire-in-which-we-burn

Expand full comment

"Massive widespread civic participation is required to solve this problem. "

What if we got "massive widespread civic participation" and they still just changed the vote tallies enough to ensure the establishment's candidate won? What then?

We turn out in the streets and let them know that we see their fraud? We're not going to take it?

That was what happened in 2020. Anyone paying attention saw that Biden couldn't draw more people than could be counted on one hand. He campaigned from his basement. It was almost as if he knew that voter enthusiasm and voter turnout wouldn't matter. [Hint: he did]

Trump, by contrast, was filling stadiums, often at several different venues on the same day as he barnstormed the country. He got the second most minority votes of any Republican in 100 years . Heck, he got more votes than every previous presidential candidate . . . except Biden, supposedly.

If you watched on election night, you saw Trump winning handily in nearly all the swing states. If you continued to watch into the wee hours of the morning, you saw all that change -- often suddenly. Supposedly, all of the mail in ballots, just in the key swing states, all suddenly turned up for Biden. It was almost as if someone had gone through the mail-in votes, separated out the Biden votes, tallied the Trump votes, then waited to tabulate all the Biden mail-ins at the very end. Either that, or . . . .

And, then they did turn out in the streets, having witnessed the above. Then, the cops opened the capital to them, ushered them in, and turned the matter over to the Justice Department. For three years, those who turned out have been hunted and persecuted. Why?

Exactly because they don't want any more "massive widespread civic participation" when they do the same thing in 2024. Your country witnessed your last free and fair election in 2016. The powers-that-be will never again let the electorate make the mistake of selecting the wrong candidate.

Expand full comment

Putting everything written by a legislature or government bureaucracy under a microscope and publicly calling them out will cause them to change their ways if a critical mass of people participate, and if they continue their malfeasance regardless the next stage is recall elections and/or going after their surety bonds.

The election process can be secured in the same way. Mass citizen oversight of every detail combined with in person paper ballots and required ID will solve it because every record will have a chain of custody and be accounted for.

Political action has stripped civics from the curriculum because civics strips political action of its power.

Do nothing and the ship known as the world is going to crash and burn in spectacular fashion and you will either be enslaved or dead. The latter will be preferable because the hellscape prison planet they are constructing is not one anyone is going to want to live in.

Expand full comment

Almost all politicians are either bought or blackmailed. We know the ones who aren’t because they speak out and agitate for change. If your representative and senators are not doing that, or worse, are agitating for climate change or green or globalist initiatives, they could hear from 50% of their constituents and never do one thing differently. They are ruled by money or fear of exposure, or both.

Expand full comment

I wish that were true. I hope you are right. But, I don't think you are.

Does anyone ever ask why they wait until all the in-person votes are tabulated before they begin tabulating the mail-in ballots? There are several reasons trotted out. If someone sent in a mail-in ballot but shows up to vote in-person as well, they use the in-person vote and nullify the mail-in vote once tabulated. Or, they don't want to prejudice the in-person vote by tallying the mail-in vote in advance and pre-releasing those results.

These are makeweight excuses. My opinion? You finish tallying the in-person votes first so you know how many mail-in votes you need to alter the outcome. This eliminates all the guesswork if you tallied the mail-in votes in advance, before you know how much you need to change the results. Once the doors close to in-person votes, it's just math.

As to whether "the world is going to crash and burn in spectacular fashion" if you do nothing. Nah. Societies do crash and burn, but people get through it. Sometimes, it makes folks appreciate the principles they'd previously forgotten. Tough times were had a few decades ago in Argentina, Bosnia and the former Soviet Union when they crashed and burned. All are better off today.

Expand full comment

Mail in voting would not be allowed, and unfortunately to your last point, yes they are building a prison planet, Boris Johnson explains: https://bitchute.com/video/QAxI56FTNqAg [1:23 mins]

Think You Won't Comply? I Think You Will: Australian Senator Antic On 15 Minute City Nightmare: https://bitchute.com/video/CxsyAqM4oTod

That ^ just scratches the surface. Their goal is to lock you into a 15 minute prison city and feed you bugs, and they are working diligently to achieve this. Having eyes wide shut is not going to save you.

Expand full comment

First of all, meaningful discussion is NEEDED for democracy, and no place does it happen any more. That used to be congress.

We need a new pace that blocks out the noise. A think tank for problem solvers that is a high trust society. Like this:

https://open.substack.com/pub/joshketry/p/how-to-fix-corrupt-government-in?r=7oa9d&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

Expand full comment

BTW, Let us remember that 'memento' is an imperative: "Remember!" with an exclamation point. Thanks for choosing that handle. Because those who don't remember, are doomed.

Expand full comment

So... So you're saying there's a pattern of behavior. *nods thoughtfully*

Expand full comment

Patterns are racist! 😂

Expand full comment

And they _really_ hate left-handed people and people who like Ska.

Expand full comment

BINGO FREN!

Expand full comment

Liked and subscribed, as I like frens.

Expand full comment

The tyranny of the masses problem in a direct democracy is solvable with three things:

1) better systems - 100% transparent, and results based systems that use metrics for all policies. Also Human Swarm Intelligence systems that don’t use archaic voting and instead use creative problem solving techniques. The system should also have in place fail safes to prevent tyranny of the masses.

2) education- each member of any direct democracy must understand what causes tyranny of the masses. Members must be independent in thought and courageous, swearing off labels for solutions. We know tyranny of the masses problem is caused mostly by echo chambers (as Tim Urban describes in his book What’s Our Problem?). Echo chambers are caused by labels and bad epistemology. Both are fixable with education. We can prove it.

3) A constitution that protects the individuals enforced by trustworthy systems (look around, no one trusts any systems any longer - government, academia, medicine, food, media, etc).

Humans have conquered so many dangerous things. Electricity, cars, flying, nuclear power. Yet we fear working in groups.

Humans in large groups can behave awfully. But they can also be amazing, and they 100% can solve problems better in groups. We can prove that groups of people solve problems better than even experts in the field, if they simply are trained on how to problem solve in a groups better, understand the problem (which might take some level of expertise or understanding, but almost never a full need to be an expert in the field), and have better technology to help them (Collective Intelligence).

Our current systems have become so corrupted that the people need to harness the power of a new kind of direct democracy - a swarm. A place not where two wolves and a sheep vote for what is for dinner, but rather wolves and sheep problem solve together creatively and populate one creative answer - they buy chickens - so the wolves can eat the eggs and the sheep and be left alone.

We need to decentralize. But first we need to educate people on how to do this.

We are starting a new digital country - a network state - that is a direct democracy. One that is run 100% by the people. But to become a citizen of LEADERLESS all citizens must first graduate Swarm Academy and learn how to problem solve in groups. Then must pass tests to ensure our place is high trust, and no AI or bots are part of it. We are also merging local groups - swarms - that meet in person with larger ones.

We can ask the entire planet a question and get one creative answer in 9 iterations of a simple problem solving system. This could take less than 30 minutes. Doing it this way - bottom up - and using the proper epistemology of identifying and solving problems, is how we get there. We can fix all of this.

Your fear of direct democracy isn’t wrong. It’s just solvable. Every problem you see in direct democracy is solvable. But the power of a direct democracy system is that it is very very hard to corrupt when done right - as all decentralization is. This is why America was decentralized as much as possible for the time, but still used archaic voting and eventually became corrupted. Our current biggest problem in the world today is: Corruption.

We need a new system that is hard to corrupt, and a new place to talk and populate ideas that we trust that isn’t polluted with propaganda. We can build a new digital country, together. All of this is solvable.

Imagine if when the first plane crashed we stopped flying. Let’s look at this problem again. We can run simulations so you can see it work, here:

https://open.substack.com/pub/joshketry/p/how-to-fix-corrupt-government-in?r=7oa9d&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Expand full comment

I can't like this comment enough

Expand full comment

*stands, applauds*

Expand full comment

When do you want to get that shit started? And what resources do we need to meet those ends?

Expand full comment

Yesterday. The only resource we need is massive widespread unrelenting civic participation. https://tritorch.substack.com/p/apathy-is-the-fire-in-which-we-burn

Expand full comment

I agree. I also think getting involved at the local level is paramount.

I started an organization last year to do just that in my neck of the woods in Florida.

It's been received much better than I thought. We've been able to create the opposite type of peer pressure without much resistance.

Expand full comment

That's fantastic, these types of interventions will reverberate and ripple and rewrite the future in a positive way. We are all in your debt.

I've noticed that so many of us in these forums are Floridians, small world.

Expand full comment

"I've noticed that so many of us in these forums are Floridians"

From all over, of all flavors, my friend.

I hail from the People's Democratic Republic of Maryland. And that's why forums like this are important. It's a whole lot safer than trying to meet at a pub all surreptitiously and sneaky and stuff.

Remember how to count to three when in Rome. And stuff.

https://youtu.be/r-lQWk79VAE?si=_8crZt75jukEv9cU

Expand full comment

Ryan, Where in Florida is your neck of the woods? Just curious.

Expand full comment

Sarasota

Expand full comment

Figures. I have a home in LBK. Small world. But I have never seen whatever local organization to which you refer.

Expand full comment

I guess that's what you're saying.

Expand full comment

wait a minute. do you not have a paid option?

Expand full comment

Not at the moment, I would much rather do this for free as my personal fight for, and contribution to, the future. If I ever find myself in dire straits I will enable them.

Expand full comment

you now have another paid subscriber brother!

Expand full comment

Thanks Ryan! That is much appreciated!

Expand full comment

Brilliantly said.

Expand full comment

Great list, TriTorch. I would add the ADL and the SPLC.

Expand full comment

Well said.

Expand full comment

Excellent fellow brother or sister!

Expand full comment

Corruption is a bigger problem than tyranny of the masses because the latter is easily solvable with better systems, education and epistemology.

New direct democracy systems - properly called “leaderless systems” using Human Swarm Intelligence are the answer to all of this corruption.

The corruption point is the politician. We don’t need them.

As for tyranny, it is actually not that hard to prevent with direct democracy. People are just too scared to try, like flying planes or using electricity.

We can prove it. https://open.substack.com/pub/joshketry/p/how-to-fix-corrupt-government-in?r=7oa9d&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

Expand full comment

Nice but fanciful thought. Our founders considered democracy to be chaos and I think they were right.

Expand full comment

Agreed.

Expand full comment

Alexander Fraser Tytler summarized this to perfection

Expand full comment

Interesting, do you have a link to that?

Expand full comment

A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.

Expand full comment

Ah yes, I remember now, absolutely brilliant analysis. Thanks Ryan! The cycle:

Hard times create strong men

Strong men create good times

Good times create weak men

Weak men create hard times

Expand full comment

"Hard times create strong men

Strong men create good times

Good times create weak men

Weak men create hard times" <-- I think We the Little People are Here

Expand full comment

That, sir, was a rant worthy of the word Epic. Nailed it.

Expand full comment

Republicans are not the heroes here. Socialists going the speed limit just create the conditions of our perdition on a more solid foundation.

They’ve had power. They’ve shown what they are. The uniparty does not want us free, it wants us docile, and exploitable.

Expand full comment

"Socialists going the speed limit just create the conditions of our perdition on a more solid foundation."

*nods* https://gifer.com/en/ULBh

Expand full comment

The only answer is a direct democracy and to avoid the tyranny of the masses problem. It is solvable.

We need alternate high trust systems that we build and control 100% as people to hold corruption accountable.

Like this https://open.substack.com/pub/joshketry/p/how-to-fix-corrupt-government-in?r=7oa9d&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

Expand full comment

God no. That just gets us to the bottom of the cesspool faster.

Expand full comment

All election officials should wear body cameras. They have one job. It’s the most important job for the integrity of the republic, yet they all fail. What do they do all day in between elections? Follow the money...

Expand full comment

Yeah, but cheaters (Democrats) gonna cheat. And specific body cameras at specific times might not work. Like the cameras in Jeffery Epstein’s jail.

Expand full comment

We need to fix trust:

Expand full comment

Hahahaha yuri. Way too late for that, so i assume you're joking.

Expand full comment

Transparency is part of fixing corruption. But first we need to build better systems ourselves. Decentralized ones. Like this https://open.substack.com/pub/joshketry/p/how-to-fix-corrupt-government-in?r=7oa9d&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

Expand full comment

Look society, it's a nice theory you've got. And we may need it if we ever get the chance to rebuild on the other side, so stash those plans away for that day.

In the present reality you'd better accept that we are ruled by a vicious criminal Oligarchy cartel and what you or I want is not worth spit right now. Criminal gangs don't yield power to voting or demonstrations or better ideas. Ghandi's methods wont work against a ruthless crime gang of psychopaths.

We are in for a huge crash, worse than anything since 1775, so pick your spot carefully and dig in.

Expand full comment

How to make Governor Gavin Newsom cry:

Require the same identification and waiting period to apply to vote as to buy a handgun.

Expand full comment

Now there's a thought 🤔

Expand full comment
Comment deleted
Jan 10
Comment deleted
Expand full comment

Sure he does. Like when he allegedly got Guillain–Barré syndrome from the Covid another and thus found out how low on the pyramid he really is. Sad

Expand full comment

The whole voting system is a sham. There’s a term called two sides of the same coin. I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade, but we’re being played by both the republican and democratic parties

Expand full comment

I agree. Seems so obvious at this point.

It's sort of a distinction without difference, EXCEPT one tiny issue:

The Left is full of HATE. I just don't see that on the right.

This is coming from someone who still remains in the middle but is now labeled a conspiRACIST.

Expand full comment

I think there's plenty of hate from all sorts of angles.

It's not so much a spectrum, Liberal on the Left and Conservative on the Right. Liberal about what? Conservative How? Where does an Lily White AR-totin' Super Christian Legally-Married Lesbian from South Dakota who grows pot in her basement sit on that spectrum?

You're not in the middle. You're *reaches up, then a little to the left, tilts, does hokey pokey, spins about, down low, a step to the left, re-reaches* Here.

I find that sensible.

Expand full comment

There is nothing conservative about RINOs. They are just democrats in republican clothing. Only about 1/3 of the republicans in DC are actual conservatives and we are the ones who want Trump.

Expand full comment

Two wings of the same bird, as they say 🦅

Expand full comment

"There’s a term called two sides of the same coin."

Uniparty delenda est!

Or, as my friend Lillia better states the case: The Elephant and Ass Show

https://lilliagajewski.substack.com/p/the-elephant-and-ass-show

Expand full comment

I'm pretty sure that you mean to say you want to go back to voting like it USED to be done. Since I turned 18 (in 1974!) I have voted in every election I could. I had a precinct I was assigned to. On election day, when I went (in person) to vote, my name was on the rolls the precinct people had. I showed my drivers license, they looked me up, and then handed me a ballot. As a retired military guy, and a person with a lifetime of itchy feet, I have voted in various elections in 7 different states that I can think of off the top of my head and the process was always the same: go to the precinct on voting day, show who you are, get verified and get a ballot. I used absentee ballots a couple times while stationed overseas, but the first time I was REQUIRED to vote by mail happened when, in 2017, I moved from Alabama back to Washington state (which is where I grew up). Somewhere along the line, and I don't really know how or when it happened, the requirement to identify yourself disappeared.

All the current uncertainties would be fixed by going back to voting in person, just like we used to do, with absentee ballots reserved for exceptions, not the rule. I'm not going to hold my breath tho...

Oh, and I also remember listening the local AM radio station (KGY in Olympia) late in the evening after the polls closed when they started announcing results.

Expand full comment

Since AZ set up their system apparently so that federal elections there are intentionally filled with fake ballots, how do we fight that? Sue the state? Go there in droves and vote illegally? My question is serious.

Also, when was that state law passed and who passed it?

Expand full comment

I, too, would love to understand this. EGM's article is the first time I have learned of this. I am hoping some knowledgeable person will tell us how this all came to be.

Expand full comment

It wasn't really all that long ago....maybe about 10 years, that here in California in the smallish foothills town where I live, there were voting precincts. You voted fairly near your residence address. When you got to the polling place, it was staffed by volunteers, mainly who were older retired folks in their 60's and above. They had a printed list of those registered in their precinct area. You indicated your name, gave your address, and signed beside your name, then they handed you a paper ballot. There were temporary but private voting booths set up. After voting, your ballot was fed into a machine while you watched. Governor Gruesome Newsom later changed various areas into mailed ballots, ostensibly as an "experiment", but after that first experiment all the ballots were mailed from that point on.

Expand full comment

I think you mean ballot harvesting. That's when Orange County turned blue, magically.

Expand full comment

I don't know that they do much, if any, ballot harvesting in California. It is so thoroughly blue in this state that hardly any Republican (and no Republican presidential candidate for sure) has a remote chance of winning. In my area I never saw any discussion of funny business, but I live far from the lefty population centers.

Expand full comment

They do, it's legal, they knew what they were doing. But they are gerrymandering very effectively as well. But for know it's a lost cause, except for local elections.

Expand full comment

They could care less about being taken seriously is the issue. They care a lot about endless grifting and enriching themselves, which is full speed ahead.

Expand full comment

As a European watching your elections from a distance, boy do you guys have third world tier elections!

Why do you have voting machines? It's not for speed, you took over a week to get the numbers in, while every other country I know hand counts them and has them done overnight. And why do those machines have algorithms? It's a simple count.

The whole thing seems ripe for abuse and lowering trust in the process.

(Anyone else predicting an "election variant" for more of the same this year?)

Expand full comment

@pobr

Well that's the point, aint it? A system ripe for abuse.

Expand full comment

It's been perverted intentionally by those who wish to get and maintain power by any means.

Expand full comment

The argument that poor or underprivileged people don’t have access or the ability to obtain an ID is absurd. The same people making that argument have no issue with ID (and a lot of other documents) being required to apply for unemployment benefits, SNAP, WIC or Section 8 vouchers. I don’t hear anything about how difficult any of those programs are for minorities to access.

Expand full comment

Or for buying alcoholic beverages.

Expand full comment

It is truly an insult to blacks and other people of color, and I don't understand why they don't see it that way. They are often voting for people who literally say they are too dumb to get IDs.

Expand full comment

Absolutely correct. Bigotry of low expectations. Just heinous elitism on display, designed to elicit guilt and empathy from the mush-brained. I prefer to think of my fellow citizens as intelligent and capable of doing things for themselves.

Expand full comment

That is Kuh-razy! Just for grins, I went to the AZ vote registration website. Their link to the federal voting registration is broken ... I'd like to think because some little cat has shined light on it.

Expand full comment

I didn't find that specific verbiage anywhere despite a slightly more than cursory glance

https://www.azleg.gov/viewdocument/?docName=https://www.azleg.gov/ars/16/00579.htm

Expand full comment

The whole thing has been updated. Trust me, it was there

Expand full comment

Check this out: True the Vote has done extraordinary and exhaustive work exposing fraud in multiple elections including 2020, and have been stonewalled and attacked at every step by actors in the Federal Govt, amongst others, including Mitch McConnell and Ronna McDaniels personally thwarting all their efforts.

We the People are the enemy of our own Federal Govt.

https://open.ink/collections/georgia

Expand full comment

No, the federal government is the enemy of freedom and the people.

Expand full comment

Well, yeah, that’s basically what I meant.

Expand full comment

I live in AZ and just found out about this yesterday. When you go to the site and click on the Federal Voter Registration, it comes up "Page not found". So I don't know what is going on but I intend to find out.

Expand full comment

Please update if you find out!!

Expand full comment

Great job! This isn't a Party ISSUE for anyone commenting. This IS a Corruption Issue. As pointed out so purrrfectly , if WE ALL DO NOT FIX THIS, none of us Win n why ever continue to play a part in a farce? If that happens OUR COUNTRY IS GONE! WE ARE CLOSE TO THAT EDGE! Get INVOLVED LOCALLY! Whatever YOU can DO...DO IT NOW! BEFORE it's way too late! IF you don't...SHUT UP N GET OUT OF THE WAY! This Kat has work to DO!

Expand full comment

The democrats are okay with corruption, electing known criminals and crime in general. The MA voters kept re-electing Ted Kennedy, and known rapist and murderer. The DC voters elected and re-elected Marion Berry, a convicted doper. Those are just two easy examples. They supported the BLM riots and burning of cities and the immediate release of any of the rioters who were arrested and went on to defund the police while they complain about "gun violence". These people are not rational and you can't treat them like they are or expect them to act rationally.

Expand full comment

I was 20 when Chappaquiddick happened in 1969, and I was shocked Kennedy wasn't even arrested for Mary Jo Kopechne's death. Later when he tried to run for president, I was totally astounded by his audacity to actually try to run. The whole thing taught me a lot at a very young age about our two-tier justice system.

Expand full comment

Great posting, but if your ideas were implemented, the government would go out of business. The reason America finally got rid of clean elections in 2020 is because the American government can't win any other way. The government runs the elections in such a way that guarantees they will stay in power and the populists will not gain power. All of the tactics -- the tabulation machines, the voting laws, the voter rolls, the "voting centers," the federal policies equating election result skepticism with domestic terrorism, the DC Gulag, the political machine called the Democratic Party -- are all government tactics needed to keep populism at bay. Without those tactics, the government would lose a lot of its power. We should not assume the government would willingly give up power.

Expand full comment

There’s no rational, logical argument against voter ID (with reasonable criteria, such as being a US citizen, for getting it) unless one wishes to subvert a fair election through fraudulent means. I love Oregon’s nearly 20 year record of fraud-free mail-in ballots (with signature protections), but that system may not work in every state. And even successful mail-in ballot states like Oregon need to revert back to pre-2020 practices of having ballot boxes strictly placed next to state offices/buildings, so that ballot stuffing is less likely. Short of a proven, tight, mail-in system like Oregon’s, in-person states need to offer more ballot sites to reduce the fraud of restrictive voting, e.g., 4 hour long lines in order to vote in selective regions. Georgia’s recent reforms seem to be good in this regard. Florida’s 100% paper ballots are another good requirement. Ban electronic voting in every state.

Expand full comment

It’s not successful, unless you mean successful at perpetuating fraud. I received three Oregon ballots in the mail one year…

Expand full comment

We’re they all addressed to you or were they addressed to prior tenants or roommates who didn’t inform the county of their move? In any event, Oregon’s signature check prevents fraud, meaning that ballots can’t be filled out and counted in the election unless the signature of the voter (on file with the county) is confirmed as the same one as on the ballot envelope.

Expand full comment

none has ever forged a signature, ever

Expand full comment

After the first 3-6 months in office, politicians spend the rest of their terms in re-election mode. There is nothing more gratifying than fooling the public voter over and over by getting re-elected for a lifetime of highly debatable service to the country. Look at The Dummy...he's been a 50 year grifter at the expense of the citizens of this country.

Expand full comment

I've been aware of Buffoon Biden since he was first elected, and he was clearly always an idiot and inferior intellect who just grifted along getting endlessly re-elected by his idiot constituents in Delaware and over 50 years doing absolutely nothing worth noting. Hard to believe he actually got pushed into the presidency. He has basically had no other job his entire adult life. It shows.

Expand full comment