Voting centers, or how Maricopa County suppressed the vote.

In a general election, Maricopa County is not allowed to use, "vote centers," also called, "super precincts," or, "mega precincts," that reduce the number of polling stations but allow voters to vote anywhere. For the first time ever, because these are presidential preference elections and they are not bound by general election laws, Secretary of State Michele Reagan and County Recorder Helen Purcell rolled out these, "vote centers," on March 22, 2016 without announcing it to the voters, or the media, or anyone really. They just did it.

Here's a list of the known issues with vote centers. Anyone who spends any time learning about vote centers knows these are the issues inherent with them. Our state officials had to know this would be the result. If they didn't, they are incompetent.

1. Vote centers make polling places far less convenient, particularly for more rural voters and the less mobile.
2. Urban areas become gridlocked with traffic during peak times.
3. Parking becomes a major issue.
4. Long lines form at the polls.
5. Randomized audits become next to impossible.
6. It influences voters to choose mail-in ballots which favor establishment candidates and change how the election season works.
7. It takes the poll work away from locals and centralizes it, giving the parties more control.

Any municipality that employs these vote centers without addressing the inherent problems with them is doing it to intentionally to suppress the vote.

Shame on you Maricopa County!

Vote Centers or Super Precincts, from the N.C. Coalition for Verified Voting

Petition: Nullify the 2016 presidential preference election results in Maricopa County, AZ

Thousands of votes were not cast in the Tuesday, March 22, 2016 presidential preference election in Maricopa County, Arizona as a result of the decision to reduce the number of polling places from 200 in 2012 to just 60. There was one polling place for roughly every 108,000 voters. Lines were reportedly five hours long at some locations. Some predominantly minority neighborhoods had no polling location at all. Anglo communities had more polling sites per resident. Thousands were disenfranchised. This was made possible when the Supreme Court of the United States gutted the Voting Rights Act. As a result of this massive disenfranchisement, unprecedented in modern history, we demand the results of the 2016 presidential preference election in Maricopa County, Arizona be nullified immediately.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION

Zero News Reports About AZ Polling Place Reduction

This is normally where I would include a link. But this time I don't have one. That's because no one in the major media reported on the dramatic reduction in polling places in Maricopa County, Arizona before the presidential preference election on March 21, 2016. The number of polling places was reduced from 200 in 2012 to just 60 on Tuesday, thanks to a Voting Rights Act weakened by SCOTUS. The Arizona Republic never reported on it, the Phoenix New Times never reported on it, and none of the local papers reported on it. No one on local TV reported it. It was all done very, very quietly-- so a big surprise would await Arizona voters. It worked a little too well, and they have awakened a sleeping giant.

Voter Suppression Is Real

Thank you Supreme Court of the United States! Who needed a Voting Rights Act, anyhow?

What ever happened to that grand committee that President Obama began by executive order in 2013 that was supposed to alleviate long lines at the polls? Oh yeah, it did nothing. The website is still there and it hasn't been updated since the committee was formed in 2013. Check it out at the link:
https://www.supportthevoter.gov/

Yes, my life is indeed pretty great. That's the problem.

"What are you complaining about, your life is pretty great!"

You bet my life is great. But my life is great at the expense of people less fortunate. My life is great because I was lucky enough to be born where I was born and to whom. My life is great because I'm a white man and the system has given me too many advantages to count. My life is great because of the artificially low prices arranged for us by multinational corporate interests exploiting poverty in developing countries. I know that my clothing is affordable because it is made by children, slaves, and indentured servants. I acknowledge that my food is inexpensive because it is picked by exploited migrant labor. My life is great because of the countless Americans who came before me to fight for socialism-- the 40-hour work week, overtime pay, safe working conditions, and more. I am very aware that my life is great because of the men and women who fought, bled, and died to end tyranny and protect us from fascism. So, yes-- I am acutely aware that my life is great. But most importantly, I am aware why my life is great.

What the word socialist means to this American.

I am often confused by my fellow Americans, including most recently Hillary Clinton and Chris Matthews on MSNBC's town hall (3/14/16.) They talked about the word socialism in a pejorative sense, intentionally focusing on the root word rather than its qualifier.

National socialism and democratic socialism aren't even in the same political zip code. National socialist countries included the Nazis. People's democracy included Marxist-Leninist states and communist governments.

But socialism tempered by democracy has given us thriving governments in post-WWII Northern Europe. Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and even Ireland and Canada.

The word socialism even has a rich history in the USA.

When I think of the word socialism, I think of the workers who marched in Chicago's Haymarket Square for the eight-hour workday that we all take for granted today.

Demonstration in Haymarket Square, Chicago, IL

When I hear the word socialism, I think of the striking coal miners and their families in Ludlow who lost their lives at the hands of the Colorado National Guard at the pleasure of billionaire John D. Rockefeller.

Striking coal mining families shortly before they were massacred on April 20, 1914

Among the dead were eleven children and two women who were burned alive because they wanted nothing more than for their fathers and husbands to have fair wages and safe working conditions.

Aftermath of the attack by the National Guard on the Ludlow miner's camp.

When I think of socialists in America, I think of the Palmer Raids when government used immigration status as a tool to conduct violent police raids on union workers in 12 cities.

Union office ransacked following a Palmer Raid.

The injustices and unlawful activities of our government during the Palmer Raids led Massachusetts District Court Judge George Anderson to write, "a mob is a mob, whether made up of Government officials acting under instructions from the Department of Justice, or of criminals and loafers and the vicious classes."

When I think of socialism, I remember the shoot-outs between striking workers just trying to fight for fair treatment and the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. I remember the Coal and Iron Police in Pennsylvania that existed to protect the management and owners of huge corporations from their angry employees. I remember the 20,000 U.S. federal troops called out to put down the Pullman Strike by the American Railway Union.

Finally, when I think of socialism, I remember the tens of thousands of Americans who fought, bled, and even died for the working conditions that we all take for granted today. I remember that these men and women died for a cause, and the government in collusion with the robber barons killed them amidst cries of, "Socialism!"

Remember this history, Americans. It has been too long forgotten.

"Where's Bernie? I don't see Bernie."

Before you use the word SOCIALISM, know its history!

Before you conservatives start tossing around the word, "socialism," as some kind of a pejorative or insult-- know its history in the United States. Know exactly what you are saying. Learn how it was used as a propaganda tool to justify unleashing the full force and might of the United States military against striking American workers. Freedom of expression was suppressed-- it became illegal to fly certain banners. Yes, in America. That word-- "socialism," led directly to the deaths of American men and women who were fighting for rights that we all take for granted today-- the end to child labor, minimum wage, the 40-hour work week, safe working conditions, overtime pay, and even the right to strike itself. That is your history, America. It was called The First Red Scare. Learn about it so that when you say the word, "socialism," we are at least talking the same language and I know precisely where you stand.

Don't mess with our choice!

Hillary Gets Most $$$ from Weapons Manufacturers of All Candidates

No other candidate gets more money from weapons manufacturers than Hillary Clinton.

Source: OpenSecrets

#FlintDebate #FeelTheBern #HillaryClinton #BernieSanders #Hillary2016 #Bernie2016

Hillary's Scary Lobbyists

Remember when the Democratic Party dropped its ban on lobbyist donations so Hillary could beat Bernie? Bernie petitioned the DNC to urge them to stop rolling back their bans. The petition fell on deaf ears. Here's a bit of background if you are unfamiliar with this news.

DNC rolls back restrictions on lobbyist donations - The Hill

So what has been the result? Well, here's a sampling of some of Hillary's lobbyist donors.

-Michael Pease who lobbies for Goldman Sachs and was once barred from communicating with the House Financial Services Committee.

-Joe O'Neil who lobbies for Bain Capital. Yes, that Bain Capital.

-Theresa Fariello and Lai King Lam who lobby on behalf of Exxon-Mobile.

-Jerry Crawford who lobbies on behalf of Monsanto.

-H. Benson Dendy III who lobbies on behalf of several companies including Raytheon Inc. who makes tactical munitions for drones, and DJI Technologies who makes drones.

-Joseph Pigg for the American Bankers Association.

-The in-house lobbying staff of Commerce Bank.

-Langston Emerson representing private equity firms.

-Thurgood Marshall Jr. who represents the Corrections Corporation of America-- private prisons.

-Michael Driver-- who represents the Red Flat Nickel Corporation that wants to develop nickel laterite mines on thousands of acres of National Forest and BLM land in Southwest Oregon.

-Stuart Eisenstat for the private American military company and security consulting firm Blackwater.

-Ameren Corp which lobbies on behalf of electric companies.

-Sabrina Campbell who lobbies for her client American Electric Power.

-Janet Boyd who lobbies for Dow Chemical.

-Melissa Lavinson who lobbies for Pacific Gas & Electric. Yes, Erin Brockovich's PG&E.

-James Allen who lobbies on behalf of big coal plant owner Puget Sound Energy.

-Bradford Cheney of Glover Park Group who have been criticized for their anti-ethanol lobbying.

-Lobbyists for the Podesta Group, whose clients include Wal-Mart, Wells Fargo, Monsanto, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, big health insurers, big pharma, and much more.

-Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease LLP who represent big media conglomerates.

-Raul Tapia, Melissa Maxfield, Phil Tahtakran, and Edolphus Towns all from Comcast.

-Kenneth D. Salomon who once worked for the FCC but now lobbies for telecommunications companies.


-Vic Fazio from Phillip Morris.

-Shanti Stanton who represents nearly $750 million in dark money, and over a billion dollars in all representing big pharma, Wall Street, and others.

These are just a small sampling, and what it means for our country is just business as usual. If these lobbyists get their way, and they likely will to some extent, then we will have no advancements in alternative energies, no tightening of restrictions on polluters, mining in our national forest, expansion of private prisons, and possibly even net neutrality itself is under threat. And I don't even want to envision the consequences of Blackwater's lobbying efforts.

SOURCE: OpenSecrets

What will it take?

What will it take? Child labor again? The military's might and force used against striking workers? What will it take? Another Great Depression? Sweatshops? How far do we descend before the American public wakes up for a second New Deal? How many people must suffer before the voters of this country rise up and take back their government? How low must wages go before Americans become fed up? How many human beings in developing countries must we enslave before we acknowledge the consequences of our consumer-driven society? How many bombs must we drop in foreign lands before the hands of peace and diplomacy take control? How many people must go hungry before empathy and compassion dominate our policies? How many? What will it take?