KKK ON THE RISE, BILLIONAIRES AND 2000 MULES, A FINALE?

Greg Palast, author, freelance journalist (often featured in The Guardian), and film maker who has produced several presentations for the BBC, is in the process of making a film entitled “Vigilantes, Inc.” in which he exposes the scam of ‘volunteer vigilantes” who have operations in several states to disrupt the vote by purging Black voters. He is endeavoring to hunt down what he calls the “Klan-Lite” operatives who are initiating these challenges to the voting rolls in a return to the KKK of the 1940s…this time backed by financing of billionaires as they continue the assault on the Voting Rights Act. Palast began his investigation in 2018 after Georgia’s Secretary of State, Brian Kemp (now governor after defeating Stacey Abrams in that race), had purged about a half-million voters, with Palast getting access to the whole list. Hiring a private contractor to verify names and addresses, he probed each name, finding that over 150,000 had legitimately moved away from Georgia, while over 340,000 had not moved, and surprise, surprise…most were Black voters.

Election Day 2018 found the Palast Investigative team, with film crew, in Atlanta where they met up with a Black woman outside her usual polling place (for fifty elections), and who had been denied a ballot because she had been purged from the rolls. She was interviewed, then invited the crew to her house, where it was discovered she was a cousin of Martin Luther King, Jr. Brian Kemp won the election by 54,723 votes, having overdone his purging by several thousand votes…oh well. Within the two years leading up to the 2020 presidential election, Kemp’s Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger (Palast emphasizes pronunciation as RaffensPurger), purged another 309,000 voters, bringing Palast back into the fray with his investigative contractor, along with the Georgia ACLU Black Voters Matter Fund, and the Georgia NAACP. Their efforts restored about half onto the rolls, allowing Joe Biden to win the state by…repeat after me…”11,780 votes” which Trump unsuccessfully attempted to move into his column.

Not surprising that the purges are ongoing in Georgia, but the trend is picking up adherents across the nation as the “vigilantes” step up their efforts in at least 20 states. Palast found that in the 2020 election-leadup analysis that Black voters in Wisconsin, particularly those voters in Milwaukee, had been purged, along with students in Madison being incorrectly added to the list. The Palast Investigative Fund, and Black Voters Matter, filed their findings with a bipartisan elections commission which stopped the purges…resulting in a Biden victory. The vigilante “challenges” skirt the legalities in Red States under the guise of “whistleblower challenges,” undertaken by citizens who suspect that an individual who they think is casting a vote illegally might be called out. For instance, Georgia’s SB202 allows “unlimited” challenges to voters by those not in government. While individual states are prohibited from purging voters by “list maintenance” within 90 days of an election, a citizen vigilante can present their voter purge lists even on election day, leaving no time for re-registration and casting a vote for those purged.

“In 2022, 149,000 voters were challenged in Georgia, not by the government, but by vigilante vote fraud hunters using specious data. Unfortunately, there have been two federal court rulings this far that have allowed this to continue, so it’s now spreading to other states,” comments Palast. He goes on to say that a Marjorie Taylor Greene associate named Pam Reardon, challenged 32,000 voters, heavily focused on Black people and college students, by using a list compiled by the group True The Vote. This group is known as the producer of the movie “2000 Mules” which falsely claimed millions of votes were “stuffed” into drop boxes by Black people across the nation. Hardly surprising that the movie premiered at Mar-a-Lago for Comrade Cheetolino! The conservative media company behind the movie and a companion book, Salem Media Group, Inc., recently issued an apology and announced it was removing the film and the book from its platform, halting distribution. ‘2000 Mules” has been widely debunked by law enforcement and the media, and an individual featured in the film who had been investigated by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation was cleared of any wrongdoing. This individual had sued Salem Media for the way he was portrayed and for the violent threats to his family, which resulted in an undisclosed “significant” settlement.

Palast identified vigilante Alton Russell, chair of the Ft. Benning area GOP, who challenged over 4,000 voters, including a “substantial number of Black soldiers.” Russell views himself as a bonafide vigilante in his Doc Holliday style clothing with a six-shooter on his hip. Palast’s Investigative Fund, along with NAACP and ACLU assistance, found not one single voter challenged by vigilantes Reardon and Russell were fraudulent, as they only stopped Reardon’s purge. On the other hand, Russell’s challenges were sustained, with the 4,000+ voters purged. Palast cautions, “Georgia’s brand of voter vigilantism has now legally spread to Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. They”re now mass challenging literally hundreds of thousands of voters, and True The Vote has put out a call to get 100,000 volunteers to submit these challenges. They”re probably the most effective vote suppression organization since the Ku Klux Klan,” further noting, “Georgia and Texas are not Red states…if people were allowed to vote they”d be Blue states.”

The film, “Vigilantes Inc.” takes its name from the 1946 incorporation of the Georgia Klan, when they registered that name in their endeavor to specifically eliminate every Black citizen from the voter rolls, and now we have them back…so, if you want your next president to be elected by the Klan, stay home on election day! Interested in the film? You can get screen credits (alongside Martin Sheen’s) for a donation of $100 or more, which will also get you a signed DVD of the film upon its completion. If interested in simply being a film backer, any donation is welcome at Greg Palast Investigative Fund.

A couple of Sundays ago, Donald Trump visited the 180 Church, a Black congregation near Detroit, for what he called “a roundtable” and as we might have predicted, his mouth opened with a lie, by saying, “it’s an honor to be here. it’s a very important area for us. We”ve done more for…and I say this proudly…the Black population than any president since Abraham Lincoln. President Biden has done nothing for Blacks.” He claimed that he had lowered Black unemployment, but failed to say that Biden has exceeded his so-called record. Political science professor David Dixon at Howard University has lauded the Biden-Harris administration for the energy they have put toward Black constituents, and that record seems to be borne out by the nomination of 25 Black judges to the federal court system, notably, the appointment of the first Black female on the Supreme Court. Government professor Steven Taylor at American University is of the opinion that the full picture of Biden’s efforts is contrasted against a Congress, especially Trump Republicans, that votes against any proposal that might improve the lives of Black people. Contrast that with Trump himself who has the gall to stand before a Black congregation to puff out his chest about his supposed efforts.

We might also have correctly suspected this appearance would be a total scam, and after seeing all the blue-eyed, white faces peering from the pews, it was evident the MAGA gang had filled the church with a crowd who had never set foot in a Black church prior to this, and would not do it again unless called upon by their Cinnamon Jesus. After the phony roundtable had ended, Trump was back at it, criticizing Black majority cities…Milwaukee is “horrible,” echoing his past disparagements of “crime-infested hellholes” in Atlanta and Baltimore, and Detroit being declared “crooked as hell,” when he told his minions to “guard the vote.” Shirley Kennedy writes on The Palmer Report, “These words about and characterizations of predominately Black cities shows where Trump’s head is when it comes to Blacks. Yet, he wants the Black vote. Any Black people who vote for Trump are bigger fools than his regular supporters.”

Leo Daniel’s Trumpvirus post on Quora writes about election commissioner, Chris Jackson’s evidence alleging that the Trump Gang has been paying people to show up at his ‘rallies,” which has “sparked significant debate and scrutiny, adding another layer to the already contentious legacy of the former president. The allegations shed light on potential tactics used during his campaign events, raising questions about the authenticity of support garnered by Trump during his time in office.” As reported on Raw Story, Jackson is looking into a June 9 event, when individuals were incentivized with money to attend a gathering, though evidence of who made payments is cloudy, raising ethical implications. “In a democratic society, it is essential that citizens attend political rallies and events of their own volition, driven by their beliefs and values rather than monetary incentives. When attendees are paid, it blurs the line between genuine grassroots support and artificial manipulation of public perception,” writes Daniel. He continues, “It raises concerns about transparency and honesty of campaigns. Voters have the right to make informed decisions based on genuine interactions with candidates and their policies…it undermines the democratic process and erodes trust in the political system.” The Trump contingent has denied this scheme in question, which was in Las Vegas, but there remains much speculation and debate, which furthers the deepening divisions and distrust among voters.

MSNB’s Nicolle Wallace, who calls herself a “self-loathing former Republican,” charges Fox News of depriving its audience of the full picture of Idol Trump, as the network has chosen to cut away from several of the GOP candidate’s rally speeches when he starts going off the deep end. The Las Vegas rally is a prime example when the teleprompter conked out, with Trump then threatening the event contractors before going into his now-infamous ‘shark-vs.-electric boat” scenario. A former GOP strategist, Stuart Stevens, suggests to Wallace that Fox “can try not to show this and hide it, but it’s a long time to election day and a lot of people are going to start paying attention that aren”t paying attention now,” highlighting the differences between Donald and Joe. Stevens says, “I think Trump is like a guy walking around with a paper bag full of water. it’s probably not going to leak that much, but when it goes, it’s going to be hell to pay to get it back. That’s where he’s headed.” Rachel Maddow told Wallace the president is now “really, really, frequently incoherent. And when he’s not incoherent, he’s speaking in terms that are pornographically violent when he’s trying to rile up his audience.” Maddow believes his speeches would be shocking to a lot of the public, if people could stand to listen to him for longer that they do, if only news organizations could responsibly broadcast more of what he says. Because of the lies and threats he’s pushing, it might be considered irresponsible to do so, however. On the shark/electric boat story, Rachel says Trump will now double down as he always does, and his troops will fall into formation, eyes agog, salivating tongues hanging, and heads nodding. “it’s as hilarious as it is scary,” she adds.

In his dehumanizing characterizations of immigrants, Trump has now suggested that they could be pitted together in fights for our entertainment…as he told Christian conservatives on Saturday. He claims he proposed to his friend Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, that a competition of his fighting league champs against immigrants might solve the immigration problem. Hardly non-violent, eh? Satirist Andy Borowitz reports that, “in a rare public statement on Monday, Melania Trump said her husband has exhibited ‘alarming mental decline” since she last saw him three years ago. Mrs. Trump said that she happened to see him on television recently ranting about sharks and boats and was struck by how much he had deteriorated over the past three years. ‘He was incoherent before, but now he be worst,” she said. Shortly after Mrs. Trump released her statement, her husband vehemently disputed it. ‘I don”t know what Mercedes is talking about…I may be 78, but I have the mind of a two-year old.””

The Palmer Report’s Bocha Blue says, “This will not end well. At this point, Donald Trump’s brain is a ‘sopranos’ episode. it’s episode after episode, leaving us transfixed, at the edge of our seats, waiting to see how it all plays out. As the episodes become more and more bizarre each day, leading up to the denouement, they become darker and more ominous, leading us gently into the finale where…………”