=By= Gary Corseri

Cynthia McKinney

Intro: I had the good fortune to hear Cynthia McKinney speak at an anti-war conference at Georgetown University in Washington, DC in 2009. There were 5 or 6 notable speakers. All were good, even inspiring. Former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney was, for me, the most inspiring, informative, exciting. I told her then that I would like to interview her. Our paths did not cross again until 3 years later when we sat down and spoke about Libya and Qaddaffi, the 9/11 Truth Movement, the “Israelization of US policy,” the “criminality of war,” the Occupy Movement, “areas of commonality” (between Libertarians and Greens, for example), Foucault’s ideas about “breaking out of powerlessness” and old paradigms, a “moral center,” bravery, and “love for humanity” (See: http://www.activistpost.com/2012/02/cynthia-mckinney-tells-it-like-it-is.html, etc.). Oddly, I felt I had barely “scratched the surface” of this complex and amazing person—the first African-American woman elected to the US Congress from the state of Georgia!

Hello, Cynthia…. Will this format work for you? Could we begin with a little fill-in about your recent academic experiences? And then let things evolve?

Well, Gary, it’s certainly good to catch up with you! Much has changed since the last time we met!  One, I’m done with my Ph.D., writing my dissertation on Hugo Chavez, race, Parrhesia, and Transformational Leadership….

“Parrhesia”?

Writing that paper helped me familiarize myself with the politics of the Americas in a more profound way.  My professors at Antioch U. encouraged me to explore uncharted territory.  I learned new navigational tools.  I feel more empowered to join with those who struggle–in the various languages of Latin America–to protect their sovereignty.  I am grateful to Drs. Peter Dale Scott, Al Guskin, Joseph Jordan, and others…. My personal struggle to get this done exposes everything wrong with education in the U.S., where we bomb countries of color that offer free education!  I don’t understand Americans’ loyalty to political parties that have sold them out! I have begun to ask myself the extent to which US voters actually want the wars and dispossessory policies that put people like me and students in search of knowledge into such blood-sucking debt!  The note for my student loan is more than my house note! U.S. policy is to deny education to its own people and then go around the world vacuuming up the brains that ought to be helping other countries to advance.  The U.S. hires brains like it hires mercenaries to destroy whole countries!  I’m no longer comfortable making excuses for US “citizens.” If they don’t know what’s going on with their tax dollars… well, they should know! All of the destabilizations, the war crimes, the torture, the crimes against humanity; the lies, the deceit–the misery brought upon others because of U.S. policy!  I’m embarrassed…, and I’m embarrassed by…whatever the attribute is of the people that allows this to continue!

Let it never be said that you mince your words! “Embarrassment.” Yeah, I’ve been thinking recently, as I watch our surreal political campaigns, the vulgarities, egocentrism, misinformation, appeals to the lowest common denominator—that I’m truly “embarrassed” about this American Empire! I’m very glad we’ve begun our dialogue with a discussion of “education.” I’ve often thought that is at the heart of our problems. When I taught in a high school, decades ago, I’d open my first classes by writing the word, “education,” and then the Latin root, “educare,” on the blackboard (hard to believe there were blackboards and chalk and chalky erasers way back then!).  “Educare”–to lead.  From “ex” & “ducare”—“to lead out.” But… to lead where? To lead out of what?  How to lead? You ask those very questions. Also, I’ve thought recently, that it has become commonplace for Progressives/the Left to complain about the US media—how biased it is, how distorted. Really, I believe we need to think about education and our media as the same thing. (The “Arts,” too, are an essential part of this system of control!) Instead of expanding our world, connecting us to all kinds of ideas and people, we are constantly restricted, shrunken. Orwell is famous for his formulation: “War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.” My own favorite Orwellianism is this: “Whoever controls the information, controls the imagination.” In so many ways, we’ve lost control of “information”! It comes at us through “education” or “IT—Information Technology” or the Arts. And thereby, we’ve lost control of our ability to imagine a different world, a humane and balanced one…. Well, you got me going now!  We’ll intertwine ideas as we progress—having a real dialogue. I want to hear more about your dissertation on Chavez, “Transformational Leadership,” etc. Also…, would you kindly save me and our readers a trip to Google? What do you mean by “Parrhesia”?

“War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.” “Whoever controls the information, controls the imagination.” —George Orwell Wow!  You know, I need to re-read Orwell and Huxley!  They both were so spot-on!  I have three most favorite films of all time:  “Fahrenheit 451,” “Soylent Green,” and “Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”  I can look at those movies over and over and never tire of them!

Yes, “Soylent Green” (Charlton Heston, Edward G. Robinson–and we all turn into green food-mush!).  “Body Snatchers”–first saw it when I was about 13.  Could never look at a coconut quite the same way!  “Fahrenheit 451”—based on the Ray Bradbury masterpiece: Oskar Werner & Julie Christie in the movie. And the common theme in all of them—the way humans prey on each other; use one another; deceive and devour…. Parrhesia is borrowed from a Greek word, which means to speak boldly, freely or with bombastic bluntness. It is saying something boldly and freely without leaving any doubt behind. It involves not only the freedom of speech, but also implies the use of truth in speech or writing. In Parrhesia, the writers open their minds and hearts fully to the readers or audience through discourse and a speaker makes it clear what his opinion is. In simple words, it is direct expression shown through words.” (Literary Devices)

Well, to get to your question: “Parrhesia” is a type of leadership that involves a special type of speech–it is a leadership that has the authority to speak and that uses that authority to speak what we would call “truth to power” and that does so despite the imminent and immanet risk posed to the speaker. Foucault explains Parrhesia in a lecture that he gave at the University of California at Berkeley and it is in that sense that I use the word. Now, the interesting thing is that the protagonists of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and “Fahrenheit 451” are willing to risk danger in order to speak truth to power… and so… are an example, kind of, of Parrhesia.  In my dissertation, I wrote about Hugo Chavez as someone who was a master of Parrhesia.  Chavez’s leadership will be synonymous with the speech that he gave at the United Nations when he called President George W. Bush a devil. “I can still smell the sulfur,” he said at the podium, right after Bush had spoken there! Parrhesiastes usually don’t live very long.  But we hear their words and see their actions forever.

Martin Luther King…. Malcolm X…. John F. Kennedy—when he spoke about ripping the C.I.A. to shreds—after their “Bay of Pigs” fiasco!

Yeah… too many! In my dissertation, I place Chavez in the context of a national leader in the Americas who dares to express his differences with neoliberalism and the so-called “Washington Consensus.”  The evidence that his speech was “to power” and at the same time very risky comes from information I found in WikiLeaks, as well as the US history of intolerance toward such leaders–as exposed in the COINTELPRO Papers, Senator Frank Church’s Intelligence Investigations Reports, declassified information available in State Department historical volumes, declassified reports of U.S. activity in “Operation Condor,” “Operation Gladio,” “Operation Northwoods”; as well as whistleblower interviews that I conducted specifically about US governmental attitudes toward Chavez’s Bolivarian Revolution.  I wanted my dissertation to be a one-stop shop for all of the current information about this type of covert US activity.

And, “Transformational Leadership”?

That’s the kind of leadership that professes values that James MacGregor Burns calls “end values”: liberty, dignity, justice, peace!  In my dissertation, I conclude that Chavez is not only a Parrhesiastes, but also a Transformational Leader!  And the evidence that I provide comes from the very real policy achievements of the Bolivarian Revolution, as well as from interviews with Venezuelans, Africans in the Diaspora–mainly the Caribbean–and scholars and journalists. Interestingly, what I uncovered from WikiLeaks is that the U.S. was particularly worried about the relationship between Qaddafi and Chavez.  Through the Africa-South America Summit process, those leaders sought to integrate their respective continents (and the Caribbean countries) in the spirit of South-South economic cooperation and racial and cultural harmony.  We now know from Hillary Clinton’s e-mails and the former Chairman of the Presidential Election Commission in Haiti that Jude Celestin, in 2010, was fraudulently denied the opportunity to become President of Haiti by Secretary of State Clinton, who claimed that Celestin was “too close to Chavez.”  Now, because of the work of Secretary Clinton on behalf of President Obama, those who objected to Chavez’s and Qaddafi’s assertion of sovereignty for Venezuela and Libya—because of their “Parrhesia”—those who objected will no longer have to worry because both of those leaders are now dead! The people of the U.S. have a lot to atone for.  On my FaceBook page, when the State Department admitted in December 2014–that yes, President Eisenhower had approved the murder of Patrice Lumumba and the CIA had set aside $100,000 to accomplish the dirty deed, I asked the people on my page how we could make up for that and also repair the damage that the U.S. did to the Lumumba family.  I was shocked when most respondents claimed that they bore no responsibility for what the US government had done then–or does now!  I was stunned that people could so easily slip out of responsibility!

I remember, when I was a child, seeing a movie newsreel of Lumumba’s murder. I was shocked! On the 50th anniversary of his murder—5 years ago–the UK’s Guardian newspaper—called the CIA assassination of Lumumba “the most important assassination of the 20th Century.” It is certainly a tragic event that changed the course of modern history; something about which our Empire’s “citizens” should know much more!

In fact, according to a recent study, Whites are now dying prematurely and a lot of the angst being felt in the 2016 election is a result of the fact that the genocide and human trafficking that White males’ ancestors engaged in—with which they never came to terms, even to this day with the descendants of the victims–, well, now, the country that they built is no longer theirs and their supremacy has been displaced and now they are treated just like they treated us! Yes, I know it’s harsh, but it’s the truth!  So, until we can deal with these truths, the U.S. will continue its decline, even as the snake-pit thrives.  And that’s because we will all be easily pitted against each other rather than turning to each other for help, solace, and liberation.  The U.S. is kind of like a husband and wife who are now at each others’ throats.  Either we will divorce and go our separate ways or we will work together to salvage our relationship.  I would like for the people of the U.S. to acknowledge the past–as painful as it is–and then move forward together in an even stronger relationship!  My parents were married for over 50 years…. Now, why are we at each  others’ throats?  Because as long as we’re fighting each other over really unnecessary things, the big criminals paraded before us on television as our “leaders” never get justice!  Nor the ones lurking in the shadows, directing the so-called leaders, depositing their ill-gotten gains in burgeoning bank accounts.  The U.S. is being stripped to the bone.  Everything the U.S. used to be is being erased.  We can’t even educate our citizens any more because the relationship between teacher and student–between professor and students–is mediated by the Chamber of Commerce and bankers.  We’re sicker because the relationship between the doctor and the patient is mediated by insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and profit-seeking corporations.  Our infrastructure is falling apart because the relationship between the elected official and the voter is mediated by corporations looking for an easy buck from the government while paying no taxes.  And, just as bad, homeless families have their tents bulldozed to make way for stadiums that billionaires are given tax breaks to build!  When will it stop?  It won’t stop!  That’s why Whites have joined everyone else in the U.S. with premature deaths.  This situation is stressful!  And while we’re stressed to the max here, US bombs are destroying whole countries in Africa and Asia.  And that carnage will not stop, will only expand–to more and more countries.  That’s what President Obama’s “Pivot to Asia” is all about!

Oh, Jeez, we need you back in the US Congress! We need you making a speech, or giving a talk–an analysis–like the one above! Yes, all the interlopers, all the “mediators,” as you say, standing between the people and their “elected” officials! Not only in politics! But the “mediators” or “administrators” standing between students and their professors! Or, the “mediators”—the pundits—between the people and true journalists! How can we call ourselves a “democracy” when the people have so little, or no, control? I even heard Mike Huckabee recently talking about the “donor class”—the wealthy donors now encouraging the anti-Trump movement in the Republican party, and how the Republican politicians have become so comfortable with their relationships with their “donors” (“mediators”!) that they fear Trump will upset their cozy relationships… and so they promote the “Anyone but Trump!” movement. (Even Hillary would be preferable for them!) Well, I don’t support Trump, and I don’t support Hillary! If Bernie Sanders were ten years younger, he might have a chance. Of course, to a lesser extent, he must play the game, too. Every American politician must give obeisance to Israel—Israeli policies—if he or she wants to have a ghost of a chance of being heard! If he or she were to embrace “Parrhesia”—well, he or she might very well meet with Chavez’s or Qaddafi’s fate! It’s obvious from what you’ve written above that you’re not very fond of Hillary Clinton! I’d be remiss, in this political silly-season, not to expand on that. To tell you the truth, I’ve been amazed to see the support she has garnered in the Black communities! I don’t think she’d be so far ahead of Sanders, I don’t think she’d have a real chance at the nomination, were it not for Black support! There are, of course, the talking Black heads on Fox, MSNBC, etc., but Jeez!, do we even need Morgan Freeman articulating his praises in that rich, resonant voice of his? Except for Cornell West and Glen Ford, I have not heard, or heard of, any Black leader speaking against Hillary—or, for that matter, Obama! You’ve been eloquent about Whites’ failures to address their past and continuing racism—even “genocide.” Could you share your views on “leadership” conundrums in the Black community? Obviously, we all need to be better informed–but HOW?  I often think that the “average” person–White, Black, Brown, Asian, et. al., is overwhelmed living his/her “normal” life, and distracted in a thousand ways: with “entertainment,” or “religion,” or “sports,” etc.  How to break through?  How to organize?  Do you feel the “message” that we are already in a global crisis–in terms of the environment, the wars, population growth, domestic violence, racism and xenophobia, pandemics, etc.–is that message getting through?

My latest on the Hillary Clinton campaign is one for RT [Russia Today] entitled, “Loose Lugs Lose Elections,” in which I describe all of the outstanding scandals/policy failures, etc. that lay in Secretary Clinton’s wake.  I describe the situation as one in which the Clinton campaign car already has five loose lugs and one more loose lug will have the car careening off the street.  Let’s see what happens between my writing this and its publication! But, yes, I do want to address your questions…. Frankly, I don’t know what kind of women want for their President someone who doesn’t hesitate to set the stage for the wholesale murder of men, women, and children!  My feeling is that Hillary is a hired gun, a mercenary, who needs the approbation of significant others, and who will do anything to get it–including destroying whole countries.  But, you know, people like that, who portray themselves as leaders, but who are really only the worst kind of sycophant, command no respect from the people they lure to become their followers.  Everything is a transaction.  And so, they too, become dispensable when the next better deal comes along.  That’s Barack Obama in 2008; could be Bernie Sanders in 2016.  We shall see. I think it’s outrageous that Black voters would be the deciding factor in support of Hillary Clinton’s limp campaign.  It just shows how bought-out and sold-out the Black political class has become.  After Haiti, Libya, Benghazi, Syria, and Cote D’Ivoire before that.  Honduras even before that.  And, that’s just on U.S. foreign policy alone.  A continuation of the Obama policies at home will devastate Black America even further.  I watched a CNN interview of Black voters that took place just before the South Carolina primary.  I was saddened to see such lack of information.  Such parroting of mainstream media memes.  If all you know is what you’ve been told by CNN, MSNBC, and the lot of them, I’m very sad to say, you “know” nothing.  We really have reached the point of 1984: “Ignorance is strength.” I have one question for the voters of the U.S.:  Are you better off today than you were eight years ago? I daresay I know the answer! Western European capitalism brought the world colonialism, its attendant genocide, and the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.  Yes, Thomas Piketty explains the corrosive nature of capitalism on society and neoliberalism is capitalism on steroids.  James Wolfensohn, in an extremely important speech at the Stanford Graduate Business School, stated that the organizations of the world (IMF, World Bank, UN) were created with the extant corrosion of global apartheid in mind.  Certain countries enjoyed unearned privilege and the great struggle today is for some to displace that privilege while others fight to hold onto it.  Venezuela, Brazil, Libya–all must be seen in this light.  The U.S. military is being used to protect and extend somebody’s privilege.  But does that privilege extend to average U.S. citizens? The answer is no. Now, more and more U.S. citizens get it, but there are still so many who are walking around in a daze.  The matrix is real and you and I, we’ve taken the red pill, but so many are still high on the blue pill.  Otherwise, there should have been a rebellion by now.  In fact, it was George Herbert Walker Bush who reportedly said to Texas journalist Sarah McLendon, in response to a question about Iran-Contra, “Sarah, if the American people ever find out what we have done, they would chase us down the street and lynch us.” Whether this anecdote is a fable or really happened, it most certainly is true.  And I’ve done my part to help the American people know what they have done. I’ve had the book thrown at me; either you learn from such experiences or you rot.  So, thank goodness, I chose to learn.  Therefore, I look at what is happening at Trump rallies, and I can honestly say that I’ve been there, too.  The forces allied against me orchestrated a riot on election day at my headquarters!!!!!  It was so painful to watch!  It was then that the degree of PhD in political chicanery was conferred upon me!  Therefore, with reference to Trump, I know it when I see it.  That was a pure case of campaign dirty tricks.  The orchestrators can congratulate themselves on a job well done, but they won’t be able to put a dent in Trump’s appeal using those methods that at least one person can see through. I studied Security Studies for my Master’s Degree.  I know about “Asymmetric Warfare.”  That’s what COINTELPRO was: destroying people’s marriages and such.  That’s what “Arab Spring” was; and the people who did it, will not hesitate to create an “American Spring.”

Note to Commenters
Due to severe hacking attacks in the recent past that brought our site down for up to 11 days with considerable loss of circulation, we exercise extreme caution in the comments we publish, as the comment box has been one of the main arteries to inject malicious code. Because of that comments may not appear immediately, but rest assured that if you are a legitimate commenter your opinion will be published within 24 hours. If your comment fails to appear, and you wish to reach us directly, send us a mail at: editor@greanvillepost.com

We apologize for this inconvenience.

Nauseated by the
vile corporate media?
Had enough of their lies, escapism,
omissions and relentless manipulation?

=By= John Chuckman

Police State by swilsonmc

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]n truth, there is no such thing as a right.

The last three centuries or so of European history developed the concept and fixed it in our minds as something real and many modern states have enumerated lists of rights, but, in the limit, the concept of rights has no force behind it.

Words on paper mean nothing when those with real power in your society decide that the words are only that, words. Judges have no power to direct where the society’s power is unwilling to cooperate.

Apart from what has happened at various times in a number of European countries, the ability simply to switch off rights has been demonstrated many times in America’s history, and there can be little doubt that dimming down and gradually switching off rights now has become a central activity in American society.

Nothing so effectively trumps rights as government claims of emergency situations, such as civil war and now the so-called war on terror. For the foreseeable future, rights in Western countries are going to increasingly be limited or ignored, if not even proscribed.

This is certainly the case in the United States where construction of a national security state is well underway, the template being that of Israel, a state which despite a stage show of democracy is quite literally more of a security state than the former East Germany, more both because technologies now are vastly more effective and penetrating than anything the Stasi had and because the proportion of military and security services in society is far greater in Israel than it was in a supposed absolute state.

Establishing such a vast state apparatus anywhere is never without consequences for human freedom and rights, although Israel has never pretended to establish defined rights, it being an impossible task to do so for a “democracy” where only one kind of person is welcome and where millions are literally held against their wills and where the state apparatus feels free to seize anyone’s property at any moment.

So it is a very ominous model towards which America is working. The work has proceeded gradually since 9/11, so that there is no sudden panic in such a large general population, but it proceeds inexorably, with new steps announced periodically limiting this or that activity. Of course, it just so happens that the project serves the establishment’s own power interests, effectively securing continued and increased authority.

The events used to excuse the project and make it acceptable, those of so-called international terror, were themselves natural outcomes, reactions to the establishment’s abuse of authority in a long series of attacks and wars to reshape the Middle East and its endless tolerance of an intolerable human situation in Israel. The establishment’s behavior created international terror.

In the end, the unpleasant truth is that only might makes right, and sentiments and fine words count for very little. We truly have made small progress since the days when a French nobleman’s coach could run down a peasant in the roadway without consequences. We are still ruled by wealth, and the security services, servants of wealth, gain added and unaccountable powers almost daily.

After all, that is how America governs much of the rest of the planet today, isn’t it? Why should home be any different?

Note to Commenters
Due to severe hacking attacks in the recent past that brought our site down for up to 11 days with considerable loss of circulation, we exercise extreme caution in the comments we publish, as the comment box has been one of the main arteries to inject malicious code. Because of that comments may not appear immediately, but rest assured that if you are a legitimate commenter your opinion will be published within 24 hours. If your comment fails to appear, and you wish to reach us directly, send us a mail at: editor@greanvillepost.com

We apologize for this inconvenience.

Nauseated by the
vile corporate media?
Had enough of their lies, escapism,
omissions and relentless manipulation?

=By= Greg Palast

Blocked from Voting by Greg Palast

[dropcap]B[/dropcap]uckle up, America.  The voting demolition derby that was the New York primary on Tuesday was merely the crash test for the coming voting wreckage in November:  a carefully planned pile up.

First, live from New York….

Francesca Rheannon, whom you may know as the host of Writers’ Voice radio, did the civic thing by volunteering to work the polls in a town east of New York City.

“I just got off my 17 hour shift as an election official.  In my election district, out of 166 Democratic voters, 39 were forced to file affidavit ballots.  The last [election] I worked in, exactly ONE voter needed an affidavit ballot.”

That’s nearly one of four voters. Why?  Their names had gone missing from the voter rolls.

An affidavit ballot (called a “provisional” ballot in most other states) is a kind of placebo ballot.  You get to pretend to vote – but the chance it will actually be counted is …well, good luck.  If your name is wrongly removed, kiss your vote – affidavit or not—goodbye.

Rheannon’s experience was hardly unique.  In Brooklyn alone, over 125,000 names were quietly scrubbed from the voter rolls in the five months leading up to the primary.

To put it in prospective, the number of voters purged equals about half of the number who got to vote.  Scott Stringer, the New York City Comptroller will now audit the Elections Board–now that the election is over.  Hey thanks, Scott.

Neal Rosenstein, the lead voting rights attorney for the New York Public Interest Research Group, which plans legal action, notes that part of the problem is that partisan hacks sit on the Elections board in New York—hacks from both parties.

Brooklyn is under the control of the Kings County Democratic Party, one of the last of the big city machines.  Would they attack their opponents’ voter registrations?  I don’t have to guess:  in my wasted younger days, I was in the Brooklyn County elections office with the hacks where we were assigned by the Party to challenge voters’ signatures en masse.  (I wouldn’t and nearly lost my state job.)

Am I saying the machine “fixed” the election for Hillary Clinton?  Without further investigation, it would be irresponsible for me to pronounce judgment.  Some of the purged may have moved, some have died.  But those who waited in line only to fill out affidavit ballots are unlikely to be deceased.

If the Machine had been aware of the mass purge underway, would they have stopped it?  As they say in Brooklyn, Fahgeddabouddit.

But whether party hacks shoplifted New York or not, that’s small potatoes. Scrubbing voter rolls is not a “New York value.” It’s a nationwide epidemic, a disease eating away at the heart of our democracy.

Voting officials learned a lesson from Katherine Harris the Florida Secretary of State who purged Black voters in 2000.  They learned how to repeat the purge, expand it and carefully hide it.

I’ve been traveling the nation, from Ohio to Georgia to Arizona and back—and finding the voter-roll purging machinery running at full speed.

Nationwide, state voting chiefs are, from my long experience, the most violently partisan officials you’ll ever encounter.

From the data provided by the US Elections Assistance Commission, we can calculate that no less than 491,952 voters were wrongly removed from the rolls in 2008, the last reviewed Presidential election in addition 2,383,587 voters filled out registration forms that were simply never added to voter rolls – and 767,023 provisional and affidavit ballots were not counted.

And it’s not just anyone’s ballot. I’ll never forget that, at one of my recent talks on vote suppression, I asked how many in the audience had ever been shunted to a provisional ballot.  There were only two Black people in the audience.  They were the only two to raise their hand.

US Civil Rights Commission statistics tell the story.  The chance of a ballot “spoiled” – not counted for one reason or another – is 900% higher if you’re Black than if you’re White.

As Rosenstein says for NYPIRG, “Instead of purging voters, we should be enfranchising them.”  Yes. Though we thought that was settled by the Civil War.

OK, we didn’t know about the New York purge beforehand.  But I’m telling you this now:  My team is uncovering an unjustified ethnic cleansing of voter rolls from Ohio to Florida to Texas.

This year I was in Selma, Alabama, with Hank Sanders, an African-American who joined Martin Luther King on the march to Montgomery that won the Voting Rights Act.  Today, he’s State Senator Hank Sanders, a title that is a tribute to America’s advance on voting rights.  He’s also Hank Sanders, purged voter, forced to vote “provisionally” this year.

Why?  I’m investigating.  But the state officials (and let’s tell it like it is:  it’s mostly GOP officials) have used so many spurious grounds to cancel registrations—“caging,” “cross-checking” and a host of other sick tricks, it’s not easy to pin-point which one is responsible for the “lynching by laptop.”

It’s worth noting that Brooklyn, like Alabama, was on the “pre-clearance” list in the Voting Rights Act.  I can tell you right now, it’s unlikely that neither Hank Sanders nor the 125,000 Brooklynites would have been purged, had the Supreme Court not gutted the Act in 2013.

As I look upon the wreckage that was the New York primary, I see the prelude, the test run, for the catastrophic failure, the well-planned failure, of the voting system in November. The purges and votes “spoiled”–the votes not counted—not the voters, may well elect our President.

*  *  *  *  *  *   *But there’s something you can do about it. 

Right now, my investigations and production team are finishing the final frames of our film on the upcoming theft of the 2016 election:  The Best Democracy Money Can Buy:  A Tale of Billionaires and Ballot Bandits.

Donate $100 to support our investigation and I will list you in the movie credits, send you a signed copy of Billionaires & Ballot Bandits right now and a signed copy of the DVD once the film has wrapped. 

Or support our work by making a No Gift Donation, small or ginormous, all are immensely appreciated!

Most important, your tax-deductible donation will help us finish, broadcast and distribute our film and print reports before the November catastrophe and just maybe, a better democracy.

Follow Palast on Twitter | Like Palast on Facebook | Forward to a friend
Subscribe to Palast’s Newsletter | Podcasts

Source: GregPalast.com

Note to Commenters
Due to severe hacking attacks in the recent past that brought our site down for up to 11 days with considerable loss of circulation, we exercise extreme caution in the comments we publish, as the comment box has been one of the main arteries to inject malicious code. Because of that comments may not appear immediately, but rest assured that if you are a legitimate commenter your opinion will be published within 24 hours. If your comment fails to appear, and you wish to reach us directly, send us a mail at: editor@greanvillepost.com

We apologize for this inconvenience.

Nauseated by the
vile corporate media?
Had enough of their lies, escapism,
omissions and relentless manipulation?

=By= Greg Palast

Blocked from Voting by Greg Palast

Greg Palast is an outstanding investigative journalist known for his complex and deep investigations.

Source: GregPalast.com

Note to Commenters
Due to severe hacking attacks in the recent past that brought our site down for up to 11 days with considerable loss of circulation, we exercise extreme caution in the comments we publish, as the comment box has been one of the main arteries to inject malicious code. Because of that comments may not appear immediately, but rest assured that if you are a legitimate commenter your opinion will be published within 24 hours. If your comment fails to appear, and you wish to reach us directly, send us a mail at: editor@greanvillepost.com

We apologize for this inconvenience.

Nauseated by the
vile corporate media?
Had enough of their lies, escapism,
omissions and relentless manipulation?

=By= Graeme Baker

Foreign laborers work at the construction site of the al-Wakrah football stadium, one of the Qatar’s 2022 World Cup stadiums, on May 4, 2015. AFP PHOTO / MARWAN NAAMANI / AFP / MARWAN NAAMANI

[dropcap]M[/dropcap]igrant labourers working on Qatar’s 2022 football World Cup projects continue to face abuse including forced labour and poor living conditions despite promises by organisers and the state to improve their conditions, according to the Amnesty International rights group.

In a report published on Thursday, Amnesty recorded a list of abuses, including the withholding of passports, the ongoing practice of interest-bearing ‘recruitment’ loans, deception over pay rates and work undertaken, the denial of rights to travel home, and physical and verbal abuse by managers. This amounts to forced labour under international law, according to Amnesty.

One group of Nepali workers told investigators they were refused permission to return home to help family in the aftermath of the devastating earthquakes last April.

The report was based on interviews between February and May last year with 132 migrant workers rebuilding Khalifa stadium for its use in the 2022 tournament.

Every single worker reported some kind of abuse, the NGO said. At that time, Qatari authorities brought in a new version of its “workers’ welfare standards,” which tackled issues including forced labour, working times, recruitment fees and travel rights.

One Nepali man told Amnesty: “My life here is like a prison. The work is difficult, we worked for many hours in the hot sun. When I complained, the manager said ‘there will be consequences. If you want to stay in Qatar be quiet and keep working’.”

Another worker at the Khalifa stadium told Amnesty he would often wait months to be paid. “At the start of 2014 there was no problem, I was getting my monthly pay and sending back money to my wife to cover my recruitment loan and the rent for our house.

As a consequence of the delays in his pay, the man’s family lost their home. “My family is now homeless and two of my younger children have been taken out of school. Every day I am in tension, I cannot sleep at night. This is a torture for me.”

Amnesty said Qatar’s World Cup supreme committee was “struggling” to enforce standards it had introduced in 2014 after an international outcry over the deaths of scores of construction workers in the country, and reports of poor living conditions.

It said that world footballing body FIFA remained “indifferent” to the conditions of workers, and should be encouraged by sponsors and international groups to push Qatar towards a comprehensive reform plan before World Cup construction peaks in mid-2017.

“Essential steps include removing employers’ power to stop foreign employees from changing jobs or leaving the country, proper investigations into the conditions of workers and stricter penalties for abusive companies,” Amnesty said.

“FIFA itself should carry out, and publish, its own regular independent inspections of labour conditions in Qatar.”

“Hosting the World Cup has helped Qatar promote itself as an elite destination to some of the world’s biggest clubs. But world football cannot turn a blind eye to abuse in the facilities and stadiums where the game is played,” said Amnesty’s secretary general, Salil Shetty.

“If FIFA’s new leadership is serious about turning a page, it cannot allow its showcase global event to take place in stadiums built on the abuse of migrant workers.”

“The abuse of migrant workers is a stain on the conscience of world football. For players and fans, a World Cup stadium is a place of dreams. For some of the workers who spoke to us, it can feel like a living nightmare.”

“Despite five years of promises, FIFA has failed almost completely to stop the World Cup being built on human rights abuses.”

“All workers want are their rights: to be paid on time, leave the country if need be and be treated with dignity and respect.”

Amnesty noted that, on returning to Qatar in February 2016, researchers found that some workers had been moved to better accommodation and their passports returned by companies responding to the group’s findings, but other abuses had not been addressed.

The Khalifa stadium is one of Qatar’s flagship 2022 projects (AFP)

In response to the Amnesty report, FIFA said it was working hard with Qatar’s supreme committee to ensure “continuous improvement” in the treatment of workers on World Cup projects.

Spokesman Federico Addiechi said in a letter: “The workers’ welfare standards in place since February 2014 were described by Amnesty as ‘key protections’. The second version of these standards, finalised in February 2016, have been improved with support of various experts and NGOs.

“One of the many improvements that are part of the second edition is the mandatory requirement for all workers to be in possession of their personal documents, such as their passports, and to have a personal safe for storage.

“While constructive criticism is necessary… it is also important to acknowledge progress and improvements.

“We do not agree with the statement in your letter ‘FIFA took no clear, concrete action to prevent human rights abuses of workers’. FIFA has been integrating human rights components in different aspects of its work, not least through the 2014 and 2108 World Cup sustainability strategies.

“While FIFA cannot and indeed does not have the responsibility to solve all societal problems in a host country, FIFA has taken ‘concrete action’ and is fully committed to do its utmost to ensure human rights are respected on all sites and operations related to the World Cup.”

FIFA said Amnesty’s study was made just as the second version of the directive was coming into force.

Qatar’s ministry of foreign affairs stated that labour reform was a “complex issue,” adding that it was working to restrict summer working hours, ban the withholding of passports by employers (punishable by a 25,000 Qatari riyal ($6,867) fine), and signing bilateral agreements with origin countries to stop the practice of recruitment.

It said Qatar’s emir, Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, last October issued “sweeping” reforms on entry, exit and residency requirements. It noted, however, that they had yet to be enacted.

“Our government takes the issues of labour rights and human rights very seriously and is committed to the ongoing, systematic reform.

“New laws have been enacted – and significant efforts have been made to strengthen the enforcement of these laws,” the ministry said in a letter.

“We believe these reforms demonstrate that Qatar is working hard to improve the lives of its guest workers and that steady progress is being made.

“We are well aware that our efforts are a work in progress, and we appreciate the efforts of Amnesty and other NGOs are making to help us identify areas for further improvement.”

Author Name Bio

Note to Commenters
Due to severe hacking attacks in the recent past that brought our site down for up to 11 days with considerable loss of circulation, we exercise extreme caution in the comments we publish, as the comment box has been one of the main arteries to inject malicious code. Because of that comments may not appear immediately, but rest assured that if you are a legitimate commenter your opinion will be published within 24 hours. If your comment fails to appear, and you wish to reach us directly, send us a mail at: editor@greanvillepost.com

We apologize for this inconvenience.

Nauseated by the
vile corporate media?
Had enough of their lies, escapism,
omissions and relentless manipulation?