Trump was right. The election was rigged. In his favor.
Why? There could be multiple reasons. For example, all those who for years talked about taking their country back. I always wanted to ask them from who, but I think I know what the answer was. If people truly believe they’ve lost it, or are losing it, they can be highly motivated to try to save it, and the ends can justify the means in their minds.
But I believe more importantly, this was a do or die election for the fossil fuel industry. They knew it, even if the American public didn’t see it. All the progress on clean energy, rising fuel standards for vehicles, an explosion of electric cars, Obama’s Clean Power Plan, and a world Climate deal to address global warming/climate change – all trouble for an industry based almost entirely on pulling ancient carbon from the ground so it can be burned and end up in the atmosphere.
It was just like 2000 in so many ways. Then there was the prospect of a global warming activist becoming President and another eight years of the progress the Clinton administration had made on the environment, global warming, and protecting public lands – most notably the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in Utah that eliminated plans for a huge coal mine. Few people know Gore initiated a SuperCar program in 1993 with the goal of mass producing family sedans that got 80 mpg by 2004. All three major auto manufacturers unveiled their working prototypes in spring 2000 in Chicago at an event attended by Gore. So Republicans nominate two oil men, Bush and Cheney. Think that was just coincidence?
And the two elections turned out the same way. The Democrat wins the popular vote, this time even by 2.9 million, but the Republican wins the Electoral College with unexpected victories in key states. In 2000, it was Florida, Bush’s brother’s state, where tens of thousands had been purged from voter rolls because they had names of felons from another state. This time it was normally blue states controlled by Republicans.
The means? For one, crosschecking of state voter rolls eliminated hundreds of thousands of likely Democratic voters. It was created by the Secretary of State of Kansas, the home state of Koch industries. More coincidence? I don’t believe in coincidences. People like the Kochs didn’t build the fortunes they have by accident. Those people who were told on election day they weren’t on the voter rolls were given provisional ballots. But those don’t get counted unless the voters follow up and prove their residency. They should never have had to in the first place. Why isn’t someone doing FOIA requests to obtain the lists of those purged and analyzing them? Why isn’t the Department of Justice being asked to investigate. It certainly won’t happen once Trump is in office.
The motive? How about the $50 trillion is fossil fuels buried on public lands Trump talked about during the campaign. That’s 625 times the current worth of the Koch Brothers. And then there was the future disposition and even possible ownership of hundreds of millions of acres of our cherished federal public lands in the US. The Bundy’s were a symptom of the increasing “wise use” push to wrench control of public lands from the feds, but there was a lot more effort in the works by states, and in Congress, all of it largely driven by ALEC, also funded by the Koch’s. Rob Bishop had become chairman of the House Resources committee. His number one campaign contributor has been the oil and gas sector. The same is true for Lisa Murkowski, chair of the Senate Natural Resources Committee. Keep your eye on both. They’ll be pushing to turn public lands over to states and private interests.
Did you know that the Republican platform actually calls for turning public lands over to the states, which would almost certainly lead to them ending up in private hands, like the Kochs. The least populated states are the ones with the most land managed by the feds. These states are in no position to manage the lands financially, and would be highly likely to open them to fossil fuel development, or even sell them off for quick cash. They like to use school funding as their excuse. It was the reason Trump’s nominee for Secretary of the Interior, Zinke from Montana, resigned his position on the platform committee. He disagreed with that part of it. Zinke may be our Obe-wan Kenobe when it comes to our cherished public lands.
“Wise users” have always called for selling off public lands to pay down the national debt. Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy will blow up the debt. A perfect storm for “wise users” like Bishop and Murkowski. Republicans even just passed House rules zeroing out costs to taxpayers of dispensing of public lands to make it easier to do. And we have a real estate developer in the White House – someone who sees $$$ when he looks at open spaces. We all grow up singing “This land is your land, this land is my land”. Maybe not for much longer.
If you think I’m off my rocker, just look at who Trump is nominating for key cabinet posts. Rick Perry from Texas to run the Department of Energy. What’s Texas famous for? Black gold. Perry even said he’d abolish the Department of Energy if he were President. Then there’s the Attorney General from Oklahoma, another state synonymous with oil, and now fracking and natural gas as well, being nominated to run EPA – a guy who sued it to block Obama’s Clean Power Plan. But best of all, there’s Tillerson, the former Exxon-Mobil CEO to be Secretary of State.
Now there are revelations about Russia influencing the election in favor of Trump. Russia’s economy boomed after oil finds in Siberia in years past, but it’s also crashed as oil prices fell dramatically. The world pact on global warming is a threat to Russia as well, and the oligarchs benefiting from their oil and gas industry, including Putin himself, who may be one of the richest men in the world ($85 billion). Tillerson is good friends with the head of the Russian national oil company, and Exxon-Mobil had a $500 billion deal with Russia that got blocked by the Obama administration. Think this all might have something to do with his nomination? Of course there’s Trump’s investments, including Exxon-Mobil, and the company trying to build the Dakota Access Pipeline.
UPDATE FROM THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW (8:20, 1-11-17): Exxon-Mobil has the option to drill on 14 million acres in the U.S., 6.8 million in Canada, and 4.9 million in Germany. But they negotiated a deal with Russia that gave them access to 63 million acres in that country. But they never got to drill there because in 2011 the U.S. government imposed sanctions on Russia. Exxon-Mobil paid $500 billion for the access, but has only drilled 1.5 wells there, as compared to over 1000 in the U.S. In other words, they spent $500 billion, and have seen no real return on their investment.
So that’s why I believe the election was rigged, and what it was really all about. Call me paranoid if you want. I used to have a poster in my classroom that said “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you”.
The problem is, we simply cannot afford another eight years like we had under the Bush administration, where they stirred us away from clean energy and down a path of increasing dependence on fossil fuels. Not to mention having the Trump administration and Republicans unravel decades of hard fought for environmental protections. The calls for doing so remind me of the captain of the Russian attack sub at the end of the movie “Red October”. He becomes so obsessed with killing Red October that he insists his crew take the safeties off the torpedoes. His second in command warns against it, but he’s simply too obsessed. Just before their own torpedoes blow them up, the second in command turns to the captain and says, “You arrogant ass. You’ve killed us all”. We’ve got some arrogant asses coming into power.
I also always think of that scene from the Indiana Jones movie about searching for the Holy Grail. The ancient knight says, “You must choose. But choose wisely. For as the true Grail shall bring you life, a false one will take it from you”. The greedy wealthy guy picks a cup of gold, claiming it must truly be the cup of a king. Moments later, it turns to ashes. The knight simply says, “He chose poorly”. Too many around Trump see black gold the same way. We can’t afford to choose poorly, but unfortunately, once again, it appears Americans have. Just like in 2000. But like I said in the beginning, Trump didn’t win the election. It was stolen for him.