Trump's War on Iran Looks to Be Used as Pretext for Midterm Voter Purge

Voting rights activists may face toughest tests as Donald
Trump's administration attempts a brazen voter obstruction 
project aimed at stopping millions from voting in midterm 
elections. Trump claimed Iran interfered in 2020-24 elections,
a pretext to take charge of elections, as Trump declares his 
intention to nationalize administration of state elections, 
in violation of U.S. Constitution. Photo is from In These Times.

Voting liberties to be slaughtered like so many Iranian children

Madison, Wisconsin — The U.S. Dept of Defense, and Dept of Justice will likely be used by Donald Trump to attempt to obstruct voting liberties of millions of eligible Americans.

President Trump referenced this coming escalation against the voting public on Feb. 28, when he falsely linked the illegal American-Israeli invasion of Iran with American midterm elections.

Trump seeks power, and Americans who vote present huge barriers to his sustaining power. 

Notes election law and voting rights expert, Marc Elias of Democracy Docket, who has brought this story to the public, while corporate media has imposed a black-out of Trump's plan: Trump has made public his intention to subvert American elections while pursuing war against Iran, then using the war as the basis to declare elections illegal.

Crazy plan, but Trump appears to have every intention of pursing this madness.

Said Elias of Democracy Docket:

At 2:30 a.m. on Saturday morning (Feb 28), Donald trump posted a video on Truth Social to announce that he had ordered the bombing of Iran. As crazy as that was, that he announced a war on Truth Social in the middle of the night, it's even crazier that two hours later, he wrote: 'Iran tried to interfere in 2020, 2024 elections to stop Trump, and now faces renewed war with United States.'
That's right. the very next social media post, back-to-back with the one announcing the war, was him tying a connection between this alleged interference in 2020 and 2024 and the war that he had just launched.'
These two posts tell you everything you need to  know about where Donald Trump is going for the next eight months, [until Election Day, November 3].

Elias, a civil liberties attorney, will fight this coming Trump action in court, Elias vows.

Elias notes Trump's unhinged social media posts follow Trump's effort to obtain state voting rolls so the administration can purge eligible Americans from voting because of voters' suspected non-Republican sentiment.

Trump and Republican Threat to Democracy Is Grave and Growing

Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha counties lead voter
decrease in Wisconsin, 2016, (Charles Franklin)

The verdict explaining why Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump is in: Many Democratic-leaning voters didn't vote (538.com), (Charles Franklin).

This explanation is not a tautology.

Republicans spent a lot of time and effort on blocking voters and it paid off, especially among those "urban" voters at whom Paul "I-cannot-and- will-not give-up-my-family-time" Ryan likes to cast aspersions in southeastern Wisconsin where most of the urban types live. Statewide, the 2016 vote is down 3 percent from 2012 (Charles Franklin).

Note the Wisconsin counties map at right and the deep-purple and light-purple counties at lower-right in the image. Those counties in southeastern Wisconsin are Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha counties, and the 2016 vote dropped off precipitously in this region.

Wouldn't it be a bad idea to work for more Democratic-leaning voters casting votes? But in Wisconsin, the Democratic Party does not employ the best and brightest.

This Friday night, Matt Rothschild, will be offering a talk in Oregon, Wisconsin, about the "risks Trump poses to our democracy."

Firefly Cafe in Oregon, Wisconsin
Friday, Jan 6, 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

We should be listening to Rothschild. The 3-percent voter suppression in Wisconsin is coming to the nation as a whole.

Voter Obstruction Is Local

Wisconsin Republicans creating a hostile and obstructive voting regime at Wisconsin's 3,500 polling places is a scheme the GOP hopes bears fruit next month.

After-all, Republicans seek to turn every lever of state and municipal government into de facto sub-units of Republican government. So, screening poll workers for hostility to voting rights and in the process taking over the voting place are naturals for voting-averse Republicans.

Antagonistic-to-voters polling workers are pervasive, but compiling reports of their misconduct is difficult for non-profits. (It takes a major social-scientific investigation to quantify the phenomenon of voter obstruction.)

Instead we see warnings about election observers and voter obstruction laws omitting the misconduct of municipal and contract election officials stationed at the point of voting and working, (unlawfully), to suppress the vote.

All of this is carried out under the rubric of voter fraud, a lie, and hostility to civil liberties, a disgrace.

Concludes a New York Times editorial in September: "The scary thing is how many Americans have bought into this charade [about voter fraud]. It shouldn’t be surprising that the Republican Party’s standard-bearer, Donald Trump, has elevated the lie about voting fraud and 'rigged elections' to a centerpiece of his campaign."

It shouldn't be surprising. Alex Wagner has a compelling report out about the dangers Donald Trump poses to voting.

The rotten fruit of the now Trumped-up danger of voter fraud is right at your local polling place, abetted by observers, polling workers and municipal bureaucrats.

Stay vigilant, especially if you are brown or black.

Voting Fraud Lie Lives On

See Debunking the Voter Fraud Myth, (Sept 2016)
Brennan Center for Justice

Republican power-grabs continue

If you have encountered a white Wisconsin election observer or poll worker, you may have encountered a Republican fighting the holy war against voting fraud.

A New York Times editorial sets the record straight on voting fraud:

How does a lie come to be widely taken as the truth?

The answer is disturbingly simple: Repeat it over and over again. When faced with facts that contradict the lie, repeat it louder.

This, in a nutshell, is the story of claims of voting fraud in America — and particularly of voter impersonation fraud, the only kind that voter ID laws can possibly prevent. ...

Credit for this mass deception goes to Republican lawmakers, who have for years pushed a fake story about voter fraud, and thus the necessity of voter ID laws, in an effort to reduce voting among specific groups of Democratic-leaning voters. Those groups — mainly minorities, the poor and students — are less likely to have the required forms of identification.

Behind closed doors, some Republicans freely admit that stoking false fears of electoral fraud is part of their political strategy. In a recently disclosed email from 2011, a Republican lobbyist in Wisconsin wrote to colleagues about a very close election [featuring David Prosser] for a seat on the State Supreme Court. 'Do we need to start messaging ‘widespread reports of election fraud’ so we are positively set up for the recount regardless of the final number?' he wrote. 'I obviously think we should.' ...

The ploy works. 

Yes, the ploy works.

The holy warriors, the overwhelmingly white Republican grassroots extending to the Alt Right, are taking the lie to ever more absurd lengths at the point of voting: The polling place on Election Day.

The objective is to frustrate, aggravate, and obstruct as many minority, young and disabled voters as possible in an effort to suppress the total vote in favor of the Republican Party. If Republicans can demean and dehumanize X number of the wrong kind of voters, Y number of voters won't come back soon.

That municipal bureaucracies treat disfavored voters differently and with animosity is not permissible under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments is a barrier to overcome, in the rightist view. Republicans wager: We don't know what we can get away with if we don't try.

Concludes the Times: "The scary thing is how many Americans have bought into this charade. It shouldn’t be surprising that the Republican Party’s standard-bearer, Donald Trump, has elevated the lie about voting fraud and 'rigged elections' to a centerpiece of his campaign."

It should not be surprising.

In Wisconsin, from school boards to municipalities to all levers of state government in all branches and in all bureaucracies, Republicans are engaged in a concerted effort to transform Wisconsin into a red state where civil liberties such as voting rights are a defect to be overcome.

Election Day in Wisconsin and Police Intimidation

Updated - Election Day (primary) in Wisconsin witnessed a City of Fitchburg Police squad make a traffic stop on King James Way, outside of the polling place at Fire Station #2.

The squad proceeded to park some 100 yards away from the front door of the election polling site on King James Way for about an hour to the voiced approval of the A.M. shift Republican Chief Election Inspector, a gentleman named Dale.

What's problematic is that the King James Way ward is heavily African-American, and any car or pedestrian attempting to gain entry to the polling place from King James Way would have to encounter a police squad outside this polling place.

I don't why a police officer chose to site his squad outside a polling place on Election Day morning, likely innocent with no intent or mischievous motive.

But the reactions by a City of Fitchburg chief election inspector, to a Dane County official to a Wisconsin GAB official contacted speak volumes: They had no Earthly idea why an armed and sustained police presence outside a polling site presents any problem or concern to any community of interest.

One need not wonder why Dane County bureaucrats are derided as provincial.

"Wisconsin allows police to be in a voting place during voting hours. However law enforcement officers cannot coerce or intimidate voters, or access voter lists or individual ballots. Report any intimidating police presence immediately," advises the civil rights action think tank, the Advancement Project.

In Wisconsin, as in other states, the Republican Party war against the wrong kind of person casting a vote continues.

Today, a light turnout in an unusually timed August Partisan Primary Day [typically the Wisconsin Partisan Primary Day is in September], makes the practical effect of the armed police and a conspicuously sited squad car negligible.

However, in November as the African-American vote turns out, Republicans are pulling out all dirty tricks to obstruct as many voters as possible.

Only a white Republican could not understand why police present a threat by their very presence to the African-American community used to harassment while driving, walking, or shopping.

Let's not include voting on this list in November.

A friendly stop for a chat by a police officer is always welcome on Election Day, but a prolonged presence is an ingredient in intimidation, and should be guarded against, exposed, and challenged.