Greg Palast's Blog, page 65
May 12, 2018
Mom’s Last Message for You
Mom (1921-2018)
Look at the photo, her last one, taken a couple weeks ago. A few days before she died.
There’s a message for you there. And it’s way bigger than the IMPEACH TRUMP T-shirt she’s wearing.
What message? It begins in Chicago. 1920s. Her dad, Grandpa Alex, was a milkman, schlepping milk cans by horse-drawn cart.
At the time, a kid could get into the movies for ten cents; and her mother gave her the dime to go every week. For 10 weeks straight, my mother went to the movies, but didn’t go in. For 10 weeks she saved the ten cents, and looked for a warm place in the Chicago snow to wait for her brothers and sisters to come out of the theater.
Until she had a dollar to get her mom a birthday present.
In 1943, during World War II, Gladys Palast was the first woman to enlist in the US Coast Guard.
I wish I could say Mom signed up to lick Hitler. But, truth is, she did it to get out of a wedding engagement to Lou Wishman — because she was really in love with my father.
That year they got married before he was shipped to the Philippines.
But don’t get me wrong: My mother was a super-patriot. Mom liked to wear goofy red, white and blue outfits for public events.
In the military, my mother became a fashion model, showing off their new Chanel dress suit uniforms — then a Chorus line girl for Sid Caesar’s USO show.
She loved showbiz. But she didn’t want to be in movies or in theaters. She thought life gives you plenty of opportunities to make you a star, a star in the lives of the people you know.
Not that she didn’t have her 15 minutes of fame now and again.
In 1988, Mom was a delegate to the Democratic Party Convention in Atlanta. But the maids and janitors at the Atlanta Marriott were on strike. My mother donned her red-white-and-blue outfit, added a mop and bucket – dressed union pickets with the same outfits — and challenged the Democrats not to cross the picket line. It put her and her mop on the cover of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
This wasn’t noblesse oblige for the poor little janitors and maids. These people were Mom’s people. Her mother, was a maid her entire life.
*
But Mom’s main political cause was her children.
[image error]
Mom and journalist 1953
She’d do anything to get us a break. She loved our simple tract house – next to the city dump and sewerage plant. But she wanted us to do better — the wish of every good parent, and she was the best parent.
She just wanted my sister and me to be successful — to perform on a bigger stage.
(She got a little carried away with that. Well, that’s what therapy is for.)
*
In her campaign to give my sister and me an edge, Mom lied to get us into the Wilshire Boulevard Temple—where all the Hollywood hotshots went.
We didn’t have the money for it, which was true. But then she added that my father, who sold furniture, had been laid off. Which was a lie. A lie told to a rabbi. I’m sure he knew it, but he let us in anyway.
*
My mother worked in our school cafeteria—and that was the limit of her cooking expertise. Hot dogs and cans of creamed corn.
Then, at the age of 47, when we left for college, mom enrolled in college herself. It took her ten years, but at the age of 57, she moved from the cafeteria to the classroom as a teacher — so she could love some more children.
And what this teacher taught me more than anything, is to love your children and teach them to love THEIR children, and eventually with all these children loving their children and all their children spreading this love, the world is transformed. The world can be healed.
She also knew you can’t love children and hate their teachers, as politicians do. She organized the first teacher’s assistant’s union in Los Angeles – now part of the SEIU.
*
Look at the photo. Her message. It’s more than the Impeach Trump T-shirt she’s showing – it’s her big-ass smile through the oxygen tubes. No anger, no bitterness, no despair; up to the last, optimistic, sure that perseverance can defeat cruelty.
Her motto was, “Make noise, make trouble and make a difference — YOU CAN DO ANYTHING.”
I knew that once Mom put on that T-shirt, Trump didn’t stand a chance.
*
The Jewish religion is a tough religion, difficult, because we don’t have a heaven or hell. We don’t get another life on a cloud somewhere.
But we do have an Afterlife. We live on in the memories of those we loved, those we touched and affected.
And this: I happen to believe that years from now, centuries from now, when her name and my name and all our names have been forgotten, I know that someone will be protesting for justice for those who have less and hurt more.
They won’t know it but there will be a crazy lady in red, white and blue with a mop and a bucket marching beside them.
*
Happy Mother’s Day, Mom.
* * * * *
Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide. Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush, Palast has written four New York Times bestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a major non-fiction movie. The post-election update of the movie, subtitled The Case of the Stole Election, has just been released on Amazon — and can be streamed for FREE by Prime members!
Stay informed, get the signed DVD of the updated, post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of The Stolen Election, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. If you use Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund — and you get a tax-deduction! Click here for more info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The post Mom’s Last Message for You appeared first on Greg Palast.
May 2, 2018
Palast brings you the No. 1 Bank Buster This Saturday, May 5 — Los Angeles, CA
No one has busted more Banksters than the Banker who came in from the cold–Nomi Prins who fled from her top post at Goldman Sachs to tell the story of frightening Collusion.
This Saturday I will introduce Nomi who will lay out the fascinating truth revealed in her new book Collusion. Then Nomi and I will take your question about the Money Medusa.
There will also be music from Danny McGaw, tequila tasting and special guests!
WHERE: Immanuel Presbyterian Church3300 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90010
WHEN: Saturday, May 5 at 7pm
TICKETS: bit.ly/nomiprinsla | $20 at door
Sponsored by KPFK, Truthdig, and Women Occupy Hollywood, the night not only includes an hour-long interview of Print but also a live music performance by McGaw and his band who will be showcasing his composition "You & Me" — the companion song to Collusion amongst other songs on his upcoming album.
[image error]
Collusion is a book that Publishers Weekly praises as “(an) unflinching, troubling exposè...not for the faint of heart”, and Kirkus Reviews called "a sharp-edged critique of the hegemony of central banks over the world‘s economies.” This expertly written, but in true Prins style, fabulously approachable and readable book, has already garnered exceptional reviews by visionaries and ground breaking experts such as David Cay Johnston, Paul Craig Roberts, James Rickards, Jeremy Scahill, Danielle DiMartino, and Ralph Nader.
Get it from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound — or better yet, get a copy signed by Prins for a donation to the Palast Investigative Fund.
* * * * *
Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide.
Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush, Palast has written four New York Timesbestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, a major non-fiction movie.
The post-election update of the movie, subtitled The Case of the Stole Election, is now available on Amazon — and can be streamed for FREE by Prime members!
Stay informed, get the signed DVD of the updated, post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of The Stolen Election, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. If you use Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to The Sustainable Markets Foundation for the benefit of the Palast Fund — and you get a tax-deduction! Click here for more info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The post Palast brings you the No. 1 Bank Buster
This Saturday, May 5 — Los Angeles, CA appeared first on Greg Palast.
Collusion: Nomi Prins and Greg Palast Sat, May 5 — Los Angeles, CA
Join bestselling authors Greg Palast and Nomi Prins on Saturday, May 5 at LA's Immanuel Presbyterian Church for the Cinco de Mayo SoCal launch of Prins' new book, Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged The World. There will be music from Danny McGaw, tequila tasting and special guests!
WHERE: Immanuel Presbyterian Church3300 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90010WHEN: Saturday, May 5 at 7pmTICKETS: bit.ly/nomiprinsla | $20 at doorFACEBOOK EVENT PAGE
Sponsored by KPFK, Truthdig, and Women Occupy Hollywood, the night not only includes an hour-long interview of Print but also a live music performance by McGaw and his band who will be showcasing his composition "You & Me" — the companion song to Collusion amongst other songs on his upcoming album.
[image error]
Collusion is a book that Publishers Weekly praises as “(an) unflinching, troubling exposè...not for the faint of heart”, and Kirkus Reviews called "a sharp-edged critique of the hegemony of central banks over the world‘s economies.” This expertly written, but in true Prins style, fabulously approachable and readable book, has already garnered exceptional reviews by visionaries and ground breaking experts such as David Cay Johnston, Paul Craig Roberts, James Rickards, Jeremy Scahill, Danielle DiMartino, and Ralph Nader.
Get it from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound — or better yet, get a copy signed by Prins for a donation to the Palast Investigative Fund.
* * * * *
Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide.
Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush, Palast has written four New York Timesbestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, a major non-fiction movie.
The post-election update of the movie, subtitled The Case of the Stole Election, is now available on Amazon — and can be streamed for FREE by Prime members!
Stay informed, get the signed DVD of the updated, post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of The Stolen Election, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. If you use Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to The Sustainable Markets Foundation for the benefit of the Palast Fund — and you get a tax-deduction! Click here for more info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The post Collusion: Nomi Prins and Greg Palast
Sat, May 5 — Los Angeles, CA appeared first on Greg Palast.
April 30, 2018
San Diego Premiere: The Case of The Stolen Election Feat. Greg Palast Live
Join me on Tuesday, May 1 at 6pm at the University of San Diego for the SoCal premiere of the #TrumpStoleIt update of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of the Stolen Election.
WHERE: Joan B. Kroc Theater
5998 Alcala Park, San Diego, CA 92110
WHEN: Tuesday, May 1 at 6pm
ENTRY: FREE — all welcome!
After the screening Greg Palast and the crew from KNSJ Radio will answer your questions.
At the event, we’ll also memorialize Greg’s mom, San Diego activist Gladys Palast, who passed away last Monday.
Salon calls our film:
"A wild and woolly ride, peppered with moments of wry sardonic humor that would make Dashiell Hammett smile. There’s so much more I’d love to tell you about what Palast dug up. But then I’d have to kill you. So you’ll just have to see The Best Democracy Money Can Buy for yourself."
Co-sponsored by USD Peace & Justice Graduate Student Association, Activist San Diego, and KNSJ Radio Network for Social Justice.
* * * * *
Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide.
Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush, Palast has written four New York Timesbestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, a major non-fiction movie.
The post-election update of the movie, subtitled The Case of the Stole Election, is now available on Amazon — and can be streamed for FREE by Prime members!
Stay informed, get the signed DVD of the updated, post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of The Stolen Election, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. If you use Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to The Sustainable Markets Foundation for the benefit of the Palast Fund — and you get a tax-deduction! Click here for more info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The post San Diego Premiere:
The Case of The Stolen Election
Feat. Greg Palast Live appeared first on Greg Palast.
April 25, 2018
Gladys Palast 1921 – 2018
Mom and journalist 1953
My mom died Monday night. 96 years old. She lived a fierce and happy life in a horrible century. She said, "I married the man I love and had two wonderful children. I’m ready." May we all be so blessed.
Mom was the first woman to enlist in the Coast Guard in World War II. She was a union rights activist (SEIU) and a teacher until the age of 80. In 1988, she led the San Diego Democratic Delegation to the party’s convention — and directed pickets around the Marriott Atlanta to stop delegates from breaking the janitor’s strike.
In 2004, Mom and Dad (Gil Palast, 1921-2010) received Activist San Diego's "Lifetime Activist Achievement Award" at the People's Counter-Inaugural Ball.
On Friday at 11am, Mom will be memorialized at Miramar Military Cemetery. My father, who gave away his combat medals to protest the War in Vietnam, will have his ashes interred beside her; each will be received by a full military color guard.
Mom taught us how to make noise, make trouble and make a difference— in our little tract home in San Fernando Valley, a home filled with extraordinary idealism, humor, confidence, caring and love.
In lieu of flowers, she requested donations to the Palast Fund to support our fellowships. However, if you live in the San Diego area, please send your donations to her organization and its radio station, KNSJ (the Network for Social Justice) at KNSJ.org.
There will be a remembrance of mom’s life this Tuesday, May 1, at the San Diego premiere of my updated film, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of the Stolen Election, in which mom and dad star (or at least, have the funniest cameo). It’s a fundraiser for KNSJ.org. All are invited to The Joan B. Kroc Theater, 5998 Alcala Park, San Diego, CA 92110. Admission is FREE.
[image error]
Gladys and Gil Palast, 17 years old
* * * * *
The Palast investigations team has been on Kobach and his fraudulent vote hunting scam since 2013 — long before he became Donald Trump’s official vote fraud hunter.
Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide.
Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush, Palast has written four New York Timesbestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, a major non-fiction movie.
The post-election update of the movie, subtitled The Case of the Stole Election, is now available on Amazon — and can be streamed for FREE by Prime members!
Stay informed, get the signed DVD of the updated, post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of The Stolen Election, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. If you use Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to The Sustainable Markets Foundation for the benefit of the Palast Fund — and you get a tax-deduction! Click here for more info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The post Gladys Palast 1921 – 2018 appeared first on Greg Palast.
April 18, 2018
KPFA Presents The Bay Area Premiere of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case Of The Stolen Election
Join us on Wednesday, April 18 in Oakland for the Bay Area Premiere of...
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy:
The Case Of The Stolen Election
Featuring a post-screening Q&A with award-winning investigative reporter,
bestselling author, and filmmaker Greg Palast.
Plus special appearance by Jello Biafra (of Dead Kennedys).
Hosted by KPFA's Dennis J Bernstein and Miguel Gavilan Molina.
When: Wednesday, April 18 at 7 and 9.30PM
(Second screening added at 9.30PM due to popular demand. Come 30 mins early and catch the Q&A.)
Where: Grand Lake Theater | 3200 Grand Avenue | Oakland, CA 94610
Admission: $15 donation for one person | $25 donation for a pair
Combo Packages: $30 Ticket & Book | $30 Ticket & DVD
All proceeds go to The Sustainable Markets Foundation
for the benefit of the Palast Investigative Fund.
And, if you can't make it to the Bay Area, we'll be broadcasting tonight's Q&A via Facebook LIVE at around 9PM PST. The stream will appear at the top of our page once we're live.
Tune in here: facebook.com/GregPalastInvestigates/
* * * * *
Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide.
Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush, Palast has written four New York Timesbestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, a major non-fiction movie.
The post-election update of the movie, subtitled The Case of the Stole Election, is now available on Amazon — and can be streamed for FREE by Prime members!
Stay informed, get the signed DVD of the updated, post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of The Stolen Election, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. If you use Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to The Sustainable Markets Foundation for the benefit of the Palast Fund — and you get a tax-deduction! Click here for more info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The post KPFA Presents The Bay Area Premiere of
The Best Democracy Money Can Buy:
The Case Of The Stolen Election appeared first on Greg Palast.
April 6, 2018
Palast with ACLU Kansas Announces Legal Attack on Trump Double-Voter Claims and Purges
Greg Palast, joined by ACLU of Kansas, launches nationwide legal attack on Trump’s claim that millions of people have voted twice illegally.
Palast is the Rolling Stone journalist who broke the original story that thousands of voters in 29 states lost their right to vote because of Trump’s phony double voter claim.
Palast is the only US journalist with the names of more than 1,000,000 of the accused voters – obtained in a years long investigation for Al Jazeera and Rolling Stone, an investigation which won the prestigious Global Editors award.
[image error]Palast is working alongside the ACLU of Kansas because the "double-vote" list was created by Trump "vote fraud czar" Kris Kobach as part of his "Interstate Crosscheck" program. Used by 29 states, almost all GOP controlled, voting officials have secretively challenged and purged thousands of voters from voter rolls in Ohio, Michigan, Arizona, Oklahoma and other states.
Palast’s team of experts has determined that the purge list is overwhelmingly biased against Hispanic, Asian-American and Black voters.
As the Brennan Center for Justice has noted, citing Palast's work, nearly one in seven Hispanic voters in the Crosscheck states are targeted because Kobach and Trump only match first and last names of voters. For real example, Billy Ray Jackson is supposed to be the same voter as Billy Manuel Jackson Jr.. (Photo from an unedited confidential Crosscheck list obtained by Palast for Rolling Stone.)
I haven’t asked for nearly a year, but I must: We are running low on funds — just as we’re about to launch a mass litigation operation against Kobach with the help of the ACLU and others. Support our work by becoming a Kobach Litigation Supporter.
The litigation nationally has begun with a demand on 29 state voting chiefs for the names of all accused double-registered or double-voting citizens who have been purged. One state, Oklahoma, has complied, with names of obvious mismatched voters.
Leading the legal attack nationally is famed class action attorney Jeanne Mirer of Mirer, Mazzocchi, Julien & Chickedantz of New York.
Copies of the legal filings upon request.
Palast is available for interviews.
* * * * *
The Palast investigations team has been on Kobach and his fraudulent vote hunting scam since 2013 — long before he became Donald Trump’s official vote fraud hunter.
Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide.
Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush, Palast has written four New York Timesbestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, a major non-fiction movie.
The post-election update of the movie, subtitled The Case of the Stole Election, is now available on Amazon — and can be streamed for FREE by Prime members!
Stay informed, get the signed DVD of the updated, post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of The Stolen Election, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. If you use Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to The Sustainable Markets Foundation for the benefit of the Palast Fund — and you get a tax-deduction! Click here for more info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The post Palast with ACLU Kansas Announces
Legal Attack on
Trump Double-Voter Claims and Purges appeared first on Greg Palast.
March 30, 2018
Kobach Behind Scheme to Ask Citizenship in Census
By Greg Palast
Tom Hartmann and Palast discuss the implications of the new citizenship question on the 2020 census.
As soon as I heard Trump was adding the question about whether you have a non-citizen in your household to the census I smelled Kobach. He'd already suggested it in a secret memo that we caught a glimpse of during a meeting in November, 2016 with Trump.
The GOP's basically turning the census into a giant caging operation to get rid of real citizen voters by asking if you have a non-citizen in your household. They want to scare people off from voting and they want to scare people off from filling out the census.
The census controls the size of the congressional delegation of states and they know this will adversely affect California, New York, and New Jersey, who have large immigrant populations. They know it’s going to shrink the Democratic congressional delegation — and shrink the number of Democratic electoral votes for president.
The census shouldn’t be used as a tool for harassing immigrants. It shouldn’t be used to cut the legs off the political power of New York and California. It shouldn’t be used to cleanse the voter rolls of New Mexico and Arizona. They want to weaponize the census and there couldn’t be anything worse.
For more on Kobach and his long history of racist policies, watch The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Movie — available to download with a $20 minimum tax-deductible donation to support our work.
Become A Kobach Litigation Supporter
[image error]Help us fund our mass litigation operation against Kris Kobach (Trump’s Vote-Thief-in-Chief). For now, details must remain confidential.Click here to make a tax-deductible donation.
* * * * *Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide. Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush, Palast has written four New York Times bestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a major non-fiction movie. The post-election update of the movie, subtitled The Case of the Stole Election, has just been released on Amazon — and can be streamed for FREE by Prime members!
Stay informed, get the signed DVD of the updated, post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of The Stolen Election, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. If you use Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund — and you get a tax-deduction! Click here for more info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The post Kobach Behind Scheme to
Ask Citizenship in Census appeared first on Greg Palast.
Kris Kobach’s Bid To Weaponize The Census
By Greg Palast
Tom Hartmann and Palast discuss the implications of the new citizenship question on the 2020 census.
As soon as I heard Trump was adding the question about whether you have a non-citizen in your household to the census I smelled Kobach. He'd already suggested it in a secret memo that we caught a glimpse of during a meeting in November, 2016 with Trump.
The GOP's basically turning the census into a giant caging operation to get rid of real citizen voters by asking if you have a non-citizen in your household. They want to scare people off from voting and they want to scare people off from filling out the census.
The census controls the size of the congressional delegation of states and they know this will adversely affect California, New York, and New Jersey, who have large immigrant populations. They know it’s going to shrink the Democratic congressional delegation — and shrink the number of Democratic electoral votes for president.
The census shouldn’t be used as a tool for harassing immigrants. It shouldn’t be used to cut the legs off the political power of New York and California. It shouldn’t be used to cleanse the voter rolls of New Mexico and Arizona. They want to weaponize the census and there couldn’t be anything worse.
For more on Kobach and his long history of racist policies, watch The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Movie — available to download with a $20 minimum tax-deductible donation to support our work.
Become A Kobach Litigation Supporter
[image error]Help us fund our mass litigation operation against Kris Kobach (Trump’s Vote-Thief-in-Chief). For now, details must remain confidential.
Click here to make a tax-deductible donation.
* * * * *Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide. Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush, Palast has written four New York Times bestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a major non-fiction movie. The post-election update of the movie, subtitled The Case of the Stole Election, has just been released on Amazon — and can be streamed for FREE by Prime members!
Stay informed, get the signed DVD of the updated, post-election edition of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Case of The Stolen Election, a signed copy of the companion book — or better still, get the Book & DVD combo.
Visit the Palast Investigative Fund store or simply make a tax-deductible contribution to keep our work alive! Alternatively, become a monthly contributor and automatically receive Palast's new films and books when they're released!
Or support the The Palast Investigative Fund (a project of The Sustainable Markets Foundation) by shopping with Amazon Smile. If you use Smile, Amazon will donate 0.5% of your purchases to the Palast Fund — and you get a tax-deduction! Click here for more info.
Subscribe to Palast's Newsletter. Follow Palast on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
The post Kris Kobach’s Bid To Weaponize The Census appeared first on Greg Palast.
March 19, 2018
Cambridge Analytica Ain’t Nuthin: Look Out For i360 and DataTrust
By Greg Palast
There are two dangers in the media howl over Trump’s computer gurus Cambridge Analytica, the data-driven psy-ops company founded by billionaire brown-shirts, the Mercer Family.
The story is that Cambridge Analytica, once directed by Steve Bannon, by shoplifting Facebook profiles to bend your brain, is some unique "bad apple" of the cyber world.
That's a dangerously narrow view. In fact, the dark art of dynamic psychometric manipulation in politics was not pioneered by Cambridge Analytica for Trump, but by i360 Themis, the operation founded by… no points for guessing… the Brothers Koch.
Mark Swedlund, himself an expert in these tools, explained in the film The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, that i360 dynamically tracks you on 1800 behaviors, or as Swedlund graphically puts it [see clip above],
"They know the last time you downloaded porn and
whether you ordered Chinese food before you voted."
Swedlund adds his expert conclusion: "I think that’s creepy."
The Koch operation and its competitor, DataTrust, use your credit card purchases, cable TV choices and other personal info — which is far more revealing about your inner life than the BS you put on your Facebook profile. Don’t trust DataTrust: This cyber-monster is operated by Karl Rove, "Bush’s Brain," who is principally funded by Paul Singer, the far Right financier better known as The Vulture.
Way too much is made of the importance of Cambridge Analytica stealing data through a phony app. If you’ve ever filled out an online survey, Swedlund told me, they’ve got you — legally.
The second danger is to forget that the GOP has been using computer power to erase the voting rights of Black and Hispanic voters for years — by "caging," "Crosscheck," citizenship challenges based on last name (Garcia? Not American!!), the list goes on — a far more effective use of cyberpower than manipulating your behavior through Facebook ads.
Just last week, Kris Kobach, Secretary of State of Kansas and Trump's chief voting law advisor, defended his method of hunting alleged "aliens" on voter rolls against a legal challenge by the ALCU. Kobach's expert, Jessie Richman, uses a computer algorithm that can locate "foreign" names on voter rolls. He identified, for example, one "Carlos Murguia" as a potential alien voter. Murguia is a Kansas-born judge who presides in a nearby courtroom.
It would be a joke, except that Kobach's "alien" hunt has blocked one in seven new (i.e. young) voters from registering in the state. If Kobach wins, it will, like his Crosscheck purge program and voter ID laws, almost certainly spread to other GOP controlled states. This could ultimately block one million new voters, exactly what Trump had in mind by pushing the alien-voter hysteria.
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The Cambridge Analytica story was first reported by The Guardian and Observer in 2015. Did we listen? Did any US paper carry the story the British paper worked on for years? So, my first reaction reading this story was nostalgia — for the time when I was a reporter with The Guardian and Observer investigations team. We could spend a year digging deep into complex stories, working with crazy insiders. There, in 2000, I uncovered another cyber-crime: Using database matching to purge felons from Florida voter rolls. (None, in fact, were felons; most were Democrats.)
I moved back to America, but found I had to give up any hope of doing true, deep investigative reports for newspapers in my own country. US papers will sometimes re-report Guardian news, but American media almost never initiates deep investigation. And THAT, fear of digging out the truth, is a greater threat to America than Steve Bannon.
* * * * *Before turning to journalism as an investigative reporter for The Guardian and BBC Television, Greg Palast was an investigator of fraud and racketeering for governments and labor unions worldwide. Known as the reporter who exposed how Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black voters from Florida rolls to steal the 2000 election for George Bush, Palast has written four New York Times bestsellers, including Armed Madhouse, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits, and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, now a major non-fiction movie. The post-election update of the movie, subtitled The Case of the Stole Election, has just been released on Amazon — and can be streamed for FREE by Prime members!
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The post Cambridge Analytica Ain’t Nuthin:
Look Out For i360 and DataTrust appeared first on Greg Palast.
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