Here’s what we do now – a personal note
by Greg Palast
Being right never felt so horrid.“This is the story of the theft of the 2016 election.
It’s a crime still in progress.” So opens my film, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
And on Election night I waited for the returns to make a fool of me.
Instead, the returns made the fool a President.
And so, my vacation’s cancelled. My life’s cancelled; that is, a life of anything but sleuthing and exposing the details of the heist of our democracy.
What’s at stake?
No way around it, this is one frightening moment.
Decades of progress created with sweat and determination face destruction. Within the next six months, we may see the Voting Rights Act repealed—and civil rights set back 50 years; the entirety of our environmental protection laws burnt in a coal pit; police cruelty made our urban policy; the Education Department closed to give billionaires a tax holiday; and a howling anti-Semite as White House Senior Counselor.
But the horror we face is countered by this one hard and hopeful fact: Donald Trump did NOT win this election.
Trump not only lost the popular vote by millions — he did not legitimately win the swing states of the Electoral College.
Michigan, Florida, North Carolina, Arizona, Ohio: every one was stolen through sophisticated, and sickeningly racist vote suppression tactics.
If you saw my report for Democracy Now! on election morning, it revealed that Ohio GOP officials turned off anti-hacking software on voting machines, forced Black voters to wait hours in line (while whites had no wait).
And, crucially, I confirmed that purged tens of thousands of minority voters on fake accusations they’d voted twice. I first exposed this bogus double-voter blacklist called Crosscheck, in Rolling Stone. It’s the sick excrescence crafted by Kris Kobach, the Trump transition team's maven who also created the Muslim-tracker software he’s bringing to the Trump administration.
What can we do now?
I have been INUNDATED with requests for my factual reports and findings by media and, most important, the front-line activist groups preparing for the fierce fight to protect our votes. Some examples:- Rev. William Barber of the NAACP filed a suit based in North Carolina, hoping to overturn the Trump "victory" — and protect the tiny margin of the Democrat’s win of the Governor’s mansion. The NAACP cites my discovery of "Crosscheck" — in which North Carolina removed upwards of 190,000 voters on false charges they voted twice.
They now need my facts.- Congressmen Keith Ellison and Alcee Hastings of the Congressional Black Caucus, personally presented Attorney General Loretta Lynch with my investigative reports and demanded investigation — "and indictments." That investigation must kick off immediately.
They now need my facts.- The Asian-American civil rights group 18 Million Rising has gathered 50,000 signatures to push the Justice Department to investigate my evidence of a massive attack on the Asian-American vote.
They now need my facts.- In Michigan, the ACLU is ready to take action on the purge scheme I uncovered, "Crosscheck," that wrongly gave the state to Trump. In Ohio, voting rights attorney Robert Fitrakis is going into court with evidence, much that I uncovered, of racist voting games — from 5-hour-long lines in Black precincts to shutting off ballot security measures on the voting machines.
The team need my facts.
I expect to be in Washington at the Justice Dept and meeting with civil rights groups in December before the Electoral College meets.
Information—plus film, video, investigative reports
And beyond the voluminous files and confidential documents my team has uncovered, we are deluged with requests for our film, videos, writings and more.
And now we have US networks, even major comedy shows, asking for our material and, of course, new investigative findings.
Information and facts make a difference
With our investigative reports, with our hard and unassailable evidence, we can challenge the legitimacy of the Trump "election." Most important, we must begin the difficult but necessary work of protecting and restoring voting rights. The 2018 Election — and the threat of more stolen elections — is upon us.
What we need to keep going...
Your extraordinary support and faith in our work funded my film The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, which is now more relevant than ever and being seen by ever more audiences.
Now we need your financial support again to keep this fight going. We just did not budget for the GOP's in-your-face steal of the Congress and White House. All our resources went into raising the alarm before the election.
So, now, I have to re-hire the staff, hit the road again. Ohio, North Carolina, Washington DC and who knows where, retain attorneys—and retain our team of technicians from cameramen to outreach organizers.
Can this new work be done?
Is there any choice?
Honestly and personally, I was hoping for some rest and time off.
But a lifetime of your work and mine is now in the balance.
- PLEASE, say, "Count me in to count the votes" by supporting the 2016 Stolen Election Investigation for a donation of any size no matter how small or large
- Be listed as a producer ($1,000) or co-producer ($500) in the credits of the broadcast version of the updated, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: THE THEFT OF 2016
- Stay informed and get a signed DVD of my film The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, a signed copy of the book with the same title or better still - get the Book & DVD combo.
And does an angel have the $8K needed for our Washington work and filming? If so, flap your wings.
I can't thank you enough for all the years of support. Alas... our work is not done.
Greg Palast
and the Palast Investigations Team
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