In short, if Kamala Harris does not engage in demanding a recount the next 48 hours, It will not happen at scale. On a deep and fundamental level, I don’t think she nor the people around her fully understand the scale of abandonment, and permanent loss of trust that will result. Shame. Shame on anyone in power who claims to love democracy. Shame will surround you like the stench of a rotting limb. I hope it wakes you in your sleep from time to time. Of course there is a reason for it. Fear.
From our citizens, we have 100s of individuals now organized and finding dozens of places we would direct her team to demand recounts. But again, in most states ONLY the candidate can demand large recounts. We are dogs who have followed the bones, but they are buried on the other side of a fence. Being dogs, we lack thumbs to open the gate. Kamala can. The whole team of smart dogs working over at SmartElections.us deserve a nod of thanks.
There is also more and more evidence which gobsmacks me:
Russian Hacker groups infighting over who should get more credit for unmaking our Democracy. And Putin’s team calling publicly for Trump to pay up for the help.
Photos of fundamentalist Christian Activists posing at election offices wearing T-Shirts emblazoned with firmware passwords to access the tabulation software.
Cleta Mitchell saying the entire voting rights division of DoJ will be “fired.”
Despite 60+ Russian bomb threats to our polling places and tabulation centers, none of our team.
Confirmation 6 of the 7 swing states used tabulators with firmware access codes built in - and unchanged since last election or longer. In one case 14 years.
Multiple people sending me chapters of Kamala’s 2019 book, in which she details how vulnerable voting machines are, and even worries Russia will change an outcome.
There is enough laughing chatter at having pulled of the hacking of American democracy folks over at ballotbounty.org have posted a reward for information on the hack. Good on them.
It was dead on correct Kamala. You nailed it. The whole chapter lines up with reports and videos the whole security community has been involved in. Imagine my face while reading your discussion of a hacking demo, that … I helped develop. It’s great stuff. 100% correct in everything discussed, but, you don’t want to engage? Kamala, you literally wrote about this specific attack by Russia on an American Democratic election. Gobsmacked might not be a strong enough word.
But here we are. If the candidate won’t act, we dogs must now find individual voters and file litigation down at the precinct level in the states which allow this. Some do, but not all. We will get some hand recounts in a few voter’s precincts. We will likely file in AZ, PA and MI. By law we likely can not in WI, FL, NC and NV. Only Kamala can. What we will get from our filings is a snapshot of what happened in a few precincts. We can’t file for a whole state. Nor even a whole county. We can file only in the specific voters precinct. Even if we find in that precinct the race has the wrong totals, and that finding might indicate the State was wrongly called, we will not be able to expand without Kamala. Worse still, it will be a meaningless exercise. I no longer think there is a point to planning the improvement of our election process if this travesty stands.
If anyone knows how to get Kamala involved, do so. As far as any of us working on it know, she is not. There are one principle theories as to why. Threats. The scale, power and ruthlessness of those arrayed against her is massive. Have they threatened her life? The life of her loved ones? The opposite side is no longer a political party which retires and come back the next election cycle. It is a criminal gang who throw opponents from windows. Poison them with elaborate cocktails of toxins.
Kamala’s concession was so quick. The narrative of the election was developing and clear, But then, it just stopped. The hack is too perfect and obvious. It is only held in place by threat. By fear. Kamala needs to step forward and be brave. Needs to make clear what the stakes are and call on her fellow citizens to decide. If I sound too extreme or too dire, perhaps you have not been paying attention to our world, nor the stakes of those arrayed against her. If Kamala stands up to them now, and comes forward, explains the threats arrayed and demands we attempt to keep the rule of law in place. Good. It may fail. It may not. But if she remains silent We lose for sure. We all lose. Except of course Putin. Even you Elon. You really might want to flip now. First one to flip gets the best deal.
I had a call this evening from someone very afraid of what I am posting. asked me to make it less aggressive. They were fraid they are being watched. “This is the throw people out of moving cars and out of windows crowd Spoon.” I know that. It’s who Trump has chosen as his allies. You have to die of something people. There is a tiny chance it will be standing up for what is right in this election. If you do not, there is a much greater chance you will die for not having stood up. I got a call from another allie concerned this post would make people not have hope. I appreciate that, but if Kamala does not step forward, hope is very poor option.
So I read it over again. And I agree it was dark, but rather than too dark, it was not dark enough. This captures the moment better. Be brave. Stand up. It’s your time.
On a personal note. My son is distressed by all this. He is 11 and afraid for some of his friends of what Trump’s lawless regime will do. He is also sad and upset we might move rather than stay. We will watch the horror from afar, I have lived through several already. But he is upset because he loves his school. His neighborhood. His friends and his 11 year old challenges and life. I have told him it will be OK. We had this conversation over dinner last night. More or less verbatum.
“…Sometimes you have to be brave and you can only be brave when the chance of losing is real. In my mind, being brave is trying to keep doing the right thing even as hope of it working out fades away. Fades to zero. If you don’t try, you are not brave.”
“Why won’t anyone else help?”
“Hundreds of people are helping.”
“But not Kamala Harris.”
“No. Or if she is, I just have no idea of how.”
“So, your saying she is not brave.”
“Yes. I am. Which sucks. I guess at least this time she’s not. Which is a hard thing to say about someone.”
“That really sucks Dad."
“Yup. And it makes me really sad. But no one can make decisions for anyone else little man. We can make them only for ourself. And then live with them.”
We talked about how it will be over in a few days either way. Either she shows up and the big fight happens. Or she does not and we do our tiny recounts. Either way it ends.
But if she doesn’t show up. The bigger loss will be our way of governance. The stench will be forever. It appears we will all will live having seen what I believe is the greatest crime in all our lifetimes, bar none. We saw the crime, and if almost no one above me cares enough to act. Damn. I will keep trying to do something as long and far as far as I can, for I can’t live with losing my country to criminals. Facing off against Putin, Musk, Trump and the Christian Right might be more stupid than brave. So be it. Stupid or brave is better than the stench of not engaging now. I’m just wired that way.
If you live in PA, AZ or MI, know your precinct and county - later tonight I will post on all socials and here in comments where we are looking for plaintiffs. Step up if you are willing.
Onward.
