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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   34831 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 6, 2023

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I am not aware of that article. Could you link it, please?

https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/

That’s why the participants want the secret history of the 2020 election told, even though it sounds like a paranoid fever dream — a well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information. . . . They were not rigging the election; they were fortifying it. And they believe the public needs to understand the system’s fragility in order to ensure that democracy in America endures.

Groups "projecting influence and power" to get someone elected is called an election campaign. It's part of every election. What is the dividing line between legitimate campaigning and "election rigging"?

There's a distinction between making an argument about why you should lead the country and using resources to ensure the right outcome. Left-aligned NGOs controlling the actual mechanics of elections (in this case funded by left-aligned billionaires) is effectively election rigging. How could anyone know that they actually oversaw it properly? From the above link, these people seem to think that Trump was assaulting democracy, so they could conceptualize themselves as defending democracy by ensuring that Trump lost the election. The changes in rules regarding mail-in ballots just prior to this particular election are also significant.

I doubt many people were going to vote for Trump but ended up voting for Biden because they were afraid of riots.

Say people find evidence that the election is rigged against Trump. This evidence has to go through a judge before any kind of actual action can happen. The judge has the freedom to decide it's inconclusive, or that they don't have jurisdiction or find some technical reason against it. That's what the Supreme Court did with Texas. Likewise, the officials who are in charge of reporting these things have careers and aspirations that could be snuffed out if they make the wrong choices. You don't find many Chinese officials willing to criticize Xi Xinping, he has a very high level of control over the bureaucracy. There were vast legions of officials and judges coming out to attack Trump through his whole term, he had a very low level of control over the bureaucracy. 92% of DC voted Biden, 5% Trump.

What "career implications" would there be, for which officials, and for what kind of "procedural/administrative" decisions?

These lawyers got harassed, for example. There are all kinds of informal methods that can be used. If you don't like someone's politics, you can refuse to hire them or get rid of them for unrelated character reasons. It could be made known that there are grants or generous donations that will become available for those who make the right decision.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/26/michigan-judge-sanctions-pro-trump-lawyers

I'm not sure what you mean by "suppression".

For example, Pfizer could delay the results of its vaccine development plan (accelerated by Trump under Operation Warp Speed) such that their positive results would only be apparent after the election:

Gruber said that Pfizer and BioNTech had decided in late October that they wanted to drop the 32-case interim analysis. At that time, the companies decided to stop having their lab confirm cases of Covid-19 in the study, instead leaving samples in storage.

This means that the statistical strength of the result is likely far stronger than was initially expected. It also means that if Pfizer had held to the original plan, the data would likely have been available in October, as its CEO, Albert Bourla, had initially predicted.

https://www.statnews.com/2020/11/09/covid-19-vaccine-from-pfizer-and-biontech-is-strongly-effective-early-data-from-large-trial-indicate/comment-page-7/#comment-3047884

I'm not sure what you mean by "procedural manipulation".

Adjusting mail-in ballot rules such that fraud becomes easier. Or making it such that voters can vote without showing ID.

Do you have any reason to believe ballot harvesting had a significant effect on the outcome of the 2020 election?

Donald Trump lost Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin by a tiny margin, a few tens of thousands. Biden won Michigan by 3% but Michigan is dominated by 95% Democrat voting Detroit, where ballot harvesting was made legal and Republicans were very angry about it: https://www.detroitnews.com/story/opinion/2020/09/23/opinion-judges-ballot-decision-threatens-election-integrity/3506593001/

Detroit is probably the most corrupt city in the US, or at least in the top 5 for machine politics. 95% Dem? Really? The big swing in the middle of the night that moved everything away from Trump is also pretty dubious.

Wouldn't that encompass literally all of politics, given that obtaining votes is ultimately a politician's biggest concern and any policy they implement or support is designed to increase their chance of re-election?

You can persuade people that you're right, or you can indoctrinate them when they're young and impressionable, or you can bring in new people who semi-automatically become part of your patronage network, or you can cover up any evidence that you're wrong. There are more or less appropriate methods to ensure your re-election.

Detroit is probably the most corrupt city in the US, or at least in the top 5 for machine politics. 95% Dem? Really?

I mean, yes. That sort of voting pattern has been consistent in Detroit for decades. It seems people don't really get there can be very red and very blue areas in this country. Like, there are countries in the rural part of Texas, et al that vote 90%+ Trump. I don't think there's any fraud there.

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