Global
Free Press readers are likely aware of the efforts of John Brakey and AUDIT USA. The thrust of their work is that “Elections must be transparent, trackable, and publicly verified”. All the efforts of AUDIT USA revolve around this concept, including the fight for hand-marked paper ballots; opposition to ballot-marking devices (BMDs) for all voters; and the ongoing effort in multiple states to require the retention of ballot images and make those images a public record.
AUDIT USA’s successful litigation in 2016 forced Arizona counties to preserve ballot images and the organization’s current litigation in Arizona will make ballot images a public record. AUDIT USA’s current litigation in Florida will require Florida counties to retain ballot images in accordance with state and federal laws. AUDIT USA has been the primary driving force in the U.S. behind the increasing recognition of ballot images as vitally important, redundant election records that must be retained and must be available to the public.
The Washington Post quoted Trump on Tuesday, Oct. 21, that “the federal
government owes him ‘a lot of money’ for prior Justice Department investigations
into his actions and insisted he would have the ultimate say on any payout because
any decision will ‘have to go across my desk’”. The implication
is that Trump thinks he can use the power of his office and his control over the
Justice Department to ensure that he will be given this money. And it is a
substantial amount of money.
The Post story further explains the issue in question.
“Trump’s comments to reporters at the White House came in response to questions
about a New York Times story that said he had filed administrative claims before
being reelected seeking roughly $230 million in damages related to the FBI's 2022
search of his Mar-a-Lago property for classified documents….”
The flaw in Trump’s views of the case is that he did break federal law when, after
the end of his first presidency, he took boxes of public documents to his Florida
President Trump and two of his former officials (AT Jeff Session and senior advisor Jared Kushner) all lied under oath and get off scot-free. Meanwhile, it is public knowledge that many convicts in the US —and I'm not exaggerating—are innocent or receive unjust and harsh sentences. That makes a mockery of the US justice system. Having lived in the good old' USA for nearly half a century, I can tell you without a doubt that justice in America is not colorblind.
Let me explain why:
* On October 19, 2022, a federal judge said that Trump lied under oath about voter fraud claims in the 2020 election. Add to that his involvement on Jan. 6 assault on the US Capitol was "a terror attack” that resulted in five people dead.
Lying under oath, know as perjury, can result in serious penalties, including fines and imprisonment for up to five years.
* On August 23, 2022, the FBI raided former president Trump's Florida home and discover more than 700 pages of stolen top-secret U.S. documents that were illegally stored.
President Donald Trump has announced that a massive new homeless shelter and soup kitchen will replace the East Wing of the White House, which he has demolished.
“This 90,000 square foot structure which I am building without any process or approval from the American people or Congress will stand as human history’s greatest single monument to kindness and charity.
“This kingly project will certainly win me the Nobel Prize, whose proceeds I will donate toward the expense of housing and feeding hundreds of humans suffering under the weight of the billionaire bonanza that is my regime.”
Trump explains that “throughout history, great men like myself have devoted ourselves to empathy, compassion, kindness and charity.
“Thus the re-made White House will cement my status as the best American Dictator ever.”
Trump says he and his fellow oligarchs promise (without putting up any actual collateral) to fund the structure, now projected to cost about one-third of a billion dollars, roughly what he’s suing the federal government for as compensation for his having been investigated for his 2021 attempt to seize the federal government.
For the last two years, my social media algorithm has been relentlessly dominated by Gaza, particularly by the voices of ordinary Gazans, displaying a blend of emotions that centers on two core principles: grief and defiance.
Shouts and honking horns . . . and a country being born?
Hey, hey, ho, ho . . . I don’t know. it’s been four days ago, as I write, that the second No Kings rally was held across the country – across the world. I can still hear the blaring horns; they sounded like music. Something fused and bubbled in the blare, a sense of connection and shared values, that isn’t going away. That was the uniqueness of this rally, or so I hope and feel at some deep place in my heart.
I attended the rally, with my sister and two friends, in Appleton, Wisconsin, where I now live – one of about 2,700 such rallies across the country. The several thousand people packing the streets of downtown Appleton were part of the 7 million people throughout the country who felt called upon to – shall we say? – join the future. This is my takeaway. This is why I’m writing about the rally today. Yeah, it’s over. But it’s not “done.”
No faux king way!
As our we open GREEP #243, our Poet Laureate MIMI GERMAN celebrates the ability of America’s Air Traffic Controllers’ ability to shut the nation down.
Activist-advocate JAY PONTI introduces us to STOPTHECAMPS.COM to fight the Alligator Alcatraz/Auschwitz nightmare while arguing that the MAGA movement is not a monolith.
In the wake of NoKings 2.0, MARISOL BIELMAN reminds us that Albert Speer used Jewish slave warriors to build Hitler’s war machine.
After discussing Donald Trump’s AI insane images showing dropping feces on a reporter, the great PAUL NEWMAN calls the alarm on ES&S voting machines.
From Arizona, the great JOHN BRAKEY highlights his 3-year defiance in pursuing citizen demands for critical public voting records.
Our engineer STEVE CARUSO warns us that election theft cuts both ways as Hillary & Kamela both walked away from electoral integrity.
Co-Convenor MIKE HERSH introduces MAGA escapees ANDRA WATKINS and JENNIE GAGE who discuss their astounding backgrounds in Christian nationalism.
In case you have never heard the name "Valetina Gomez" before, she is a 26 y/o Columbian immigrant and a right-wing extremist Republican candidate for Secretary of State in Missouri who faced a resounding defeat in the primary election last year. One day after her brother's support for her campaign, he was fired from the office of New Jersey mayor.
She came to public attention when she burnt a copy of the Qur'an during her election campaign to attract media attention and generate votes. But the self-confessed “biggest bitch in America” uses the verbal equivalent of "shock and awe" against Muslims, Blacks, immigrants, and gay people to make a name for himself.
Here are some samples of her recent obnoxious remarks:
* She recently burned a copy of the Qur'an.
* Muslims should never be able to hold public office in the US.
* Muslims want to kill every Jew, Christian, and Hindu.
* She cheers the slaughter of innocent children in Gaza.
* She is banned on Instagram, Facebook, and Wikipedia due to her incendiary remarks and call for violence.
The human condition includes a vast array of unavoidable misfortunes. But what about the preventable ones? Shouldn’t the United States provide for the basic needs of its people?
Such questions get distinctly short shrift in the dominant political narratives. When someone can’t make ends meet and suffers dire consequences, the mainstream default is to see a failing individual rather than a failing system. Even when elected leaders decry inequity, they typically do more to mystify than clarify what has caused it.
While “income inequality” is now a familiar phrase, media coverage and political rhetoric routinely disconnect victims from their victimizers. Human-interest stories and speechifying might lament or deplore common predicaments, but their storylines rarely connect the destructive effects of economic insecurity with how corporate power plunders social resources and fleeces the working class. Yet the results are extremely far-reaching.