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What have other countries done in the past when in our situation?

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proudtobeadem Donating Member (665 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Dec-04-04 05:06 PM
Original message
What have other countries done in the past when in our situation?
What I mean is in a country that is:
1) Largely controlled by one party (most of all three branches)
2) Controls/Owns most of MSM
3) Is going to stay in power unless we act

I ask this because I believe that to every problem there is a solution. In this case, it may be as simple as looking at history.

I ask about other countries because as far as I know this country has never been in this situation. Correct me if I'm wrong, history, is really not my forte, -science/medicine is.

1) What have other countries done to:
a) successfully change the political landscape
b) Rectify election fraud
2) How do we get started on this ?
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Vincardog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Dec-04-04 05:08 PM
Response to Original message
1. Start by Demanding the FAIR count of this election Then get rid of BBV
look at the Ukraine
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genius Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Dec-04-04 05:14 PM
Response to Original message
2. French Revolution
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proudtobeadem Donating Member (665 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Dec-04-04 05:24 PM
Response to Reply #2
7. How about controlling more of the MSM ?
Why can't we start some kind of movement to have our own TV MSM like Fox we could get someone like Soros, and other wealthy liberals, celebrities, to put up part of the funds and the rest can be from a combo of donations, and smaller media we already have merginginto one large media corp. That way we would end up with a major MSM that would broadcast the truth.
Is this do-able??
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aneerkoinos Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Dec-04-04 06:02 PM
Response to Reply #7
15. You're on the right track
But the trick is not to controll media of your own (and become like Murdoch, just nicer, gentler Murdoch ;)) but to FREE media from being the voice of ownership and voice of advertizers to being voice of the people, what ever they wan't to say.

Authentic grass roots media with authentic grassroots journalism and lot's of creative, fresh and anarchistic energy both in infotainment and entertainment sectors to rob the audience from lame commercial outlets, and doing it smartly enough so the thing doesn't fall apart in few months, that's the way to go.
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hlthe2b Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Dec-04-04 05:42 PM
Response to Reply #2
9. Pickles might not want to come out with "let them eat cake!"
eh?
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proudtobeadem Donating Member (665 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Dec-04-04 05:49 PM
Response to Reply #9
11. Who's Pickles? sorry I'ma newbie
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NMDemDist2 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Dec-04-04 05:55 PM
Response to Reply #11
12. Pickles aka the Stepford Wife aka Laura Bush
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proudtobeadem Donating Member (665 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Dec-04-04 05:59 PM
Response to Reply #12
13. Thanks, it'll come in handy :)
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hlthe2b Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Dec-04-04 06:02 PM
Response to Reply #11
14. Welcome proudtobeadem!
Don't be afraid to ask-- Duers have a bit of "board-speak," that you'll quickly pick up. :toast:
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proudtobeadem Donating Member (665 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Dec-04-04 06:09 PM
Response to Reply #14
16. Thanks for the welcome, I'll catch on eventually. :)
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Lizzie Borden Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Dec-04-04 05:16 PM
Response to Original message
3. You don't have to look at foreigners,
start looking at the Franklin Roosevelt administrations. Of course for the Dems, it was great, but the Republicans thought they were never going to get power again. He stacked the Supreme court too.
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proudtobeadem Donating Member (665 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Dec-04-04 05:38 PM
Response to Reply #3
8. How did they do that ?
I have never been as politically motivated as in this election and post selection. I have been racking my brains and I came up with what's in post # 7
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Matariki Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Dec-04-04 05:20 PM
Response to Original message
4. How does Europe & Canada run their elections?
As I understand it, they use paper ballots which are hand counted. I believe this is what we should be fighting for and demanding. How do we go about doing that?
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Iceburg Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Dec-04-04 06:16 PM
Response to Reply #4
17. In Canada we use pencils & paper ballots to vote but that is only
part of the equation.

1) The federal elections are centrally managed and administered by a government agency (Elections Canada) that reports directly to Parliament (all elected members). Any sign of partisanship by an Elections Canada employee would lead to immediate dismissal.

2) In Canada, we maintain a permanent national register of eligible voters. It contains basic information about each person: name, address, sex and date of birth. The information in the National Register of Electors is used to produce the preliminary voters lists for federal elections, by-elections and referendums. About 20 percent of elector information changes every year.

16 % due to address changes
2 % new additions due to persons reaching 18
1 % new citizens added
1 % removed due to deaths

The data is kept current through the cooperation of many federal and provincial agencies (tax, motor vehicle, vital statistics, immigration etc) in addition to targeted mail-outs to potential eligible voters. Eligible voters not on the list may register anytime including election day.

Because of Elections Canada's extraordinary effort to maintain the National Register:
a) very few eligible voters are not registered (including first-time voters)
b) dead people do not inflate the list
c) duplicate registrations are minimized


Description of the National Register of Electors
http://www.elections.ca/content.asp?section=ins&document=national&dir=nre&lang=e&textonly=false

Frequently Asked Questions (including my favourite "Is someone allowed to eat a ballot?")
http://www.elections.ca/content.asp?section=faq&document=faqvoting&lang=e&textonly=false


In Canada, You will NEVER see:
a) more ballots cast then registered voters
b) more registered voters than eligible population


3) Voters are required by law to show ID and they must be on "the list". That said, we do have a provision for permitting those that may not be on the list (very small numbers) a way to cast their vote.

4) Voters mark their very simple paper ballot with pencil. The ballot is remarkably simple in comparison to US ballots in that we do not vote for the dog catcher and friends in a national election. (We hold separate provincial and municipal elections to nominate our dog catchers et al)

As you may know, we do not vote directly for a prime minister -- we vote for local district candidates (who usually belong to a party). Each province, based on population has X number of seats up for grabs. Each seat represents approximately the same number of voters. Parties may field 1 candidate for each district. So typically for one district, we have about 4 names on the ballot -- that is it. Mark your X and your done.

5)Ballots are counted locally and and publicly (all parties have representatives present when the vote is counted)

The party with the most number of winning candidates wins the election, and their party leader becomes Prime Minister.

Of course its a bit more complicated than that, but I hope I have provided you with the essential elements.
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aneerkoinos Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Dec-04-04 05:21 PM
Response to Original message
5. Fall apart
If the closest parallel is the Soviet Empire, the other side of the coin in the post WWII status quo.

New England can join EU/Canada block, West cost with Mexico, Red states' Jesusland becomes/stays independent, corrupt and authoritarian equivalent with Putinland (but no oil) with averadge lifespan of about 40 years... ;)
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NMDemDist2 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Dec-04-04 05:22 PM
Response to Original message
6. look at how we did it last time the Robber Barons ran the country
http://www.lutins.org/labor.html

here's a taste...

Late 1885/Early 1886
Hundreds of thousands of American workers, increasingly determined to resist subjugation to capitalist power, poured into a fledgling labor organization, the Knights of Labor. Beginning on May 1, 1886, they took to the streets to demand the universal adoption of the eight hour day.

Chicago was the center of the movement. Workers there had been agitating for an eight hour day for months, and on the eve of May 1, 50,000 workers were already on strike. 30,000 more swelled their ranks the next day, bringing most of Chicago manufacturing to a standstill. Fears of violent class conflict gripped the city. No violence occurred on May 1 -- a Saturday -- or May 2. But on Monday, May 3, a fight involving hundreds broke out at McCormick Reaper between locked-out unionists and the non-unionist workers McCormick hired to replace them. The Chicago police, swollen in number and heavily armed, quickly moved in with clubs and guns to restore order. They left four unionists dead and many others wounded.

Angered by the deadly force of the police, a group of anarchists, led by August Spies and Albert Parsons, called on workers to arm themselves and participate in a massive protest demonstration in Haymarket Square on Tuesday evening, May 4. The demonstration appeared to be a complete bust, with only 3,000 assembling. But near the end of the evening, an individual, whose identity is still in dispute, threw a bomb that killed seven policemen and injured 67 others. Hysterical city and state government officials rounded up eight anarchists, tried them for murder, and and sentenced them to death.

On 11 November 1887, four of them, including Parsons and Spies, were executed. All of the executed advocated armed struggle and violence as revolutionary methods, but their prosecutors found no evidence that any had actually thrown the Haymarket bomb. They died for their words, not their deeds. A quarter of a million people lined Chicago's street during Parson's funeral procession to express their outrage at this gross mis-carriage of justice.

For radicals and trade unionists everywhere, Haymarket became a symbol of the stark inequality and injustice of capitalist society. The May 1886 Chicago events figured prominently in the decision of the founding congress of the Second International (Paris, 1889) to make May 1, 1890 a demonstration of the solidarity and power of the international working class movement. May Day has been a celebration of international socialism and (after 1917) international communism ever since.

The Bayview Massacre also took place at this time (for more detailed information visit http://www.execpc.com/~blake/rollin~1.htm), where seven people, including one child, were killed by state militia. On 1 May 1886 about 2,000 Polish workers walked off their jobs and gathered at Saint Stanislaus Church in Milwaukee, angrily denouncing the ten hour workday. They then marched through the city, calling on other workers to join them; as a result, all but one factory was closed down as sixteen thousand protesters gathered at Rolling Mills, prompting Wisconsin Govorner Jeremiah Rusk to call the state militia. The militia camped out at the mill while workers slept in nearby fields, and on the morning of May 5th, as protesters chanted for the eight hour workday, General Treaumer ordered his men to shoot into the crowd, some of whom were carrying sticks, bricks, and scythes, leaving seven dead at the scene. The Milwaukee Journal reported that eight more would die within twenty four hours, and without hesitation added that Governor Rusk was to be commended for his quick action in the matter.
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proudtobeadem Donating Member (665 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Dec-04-04 05:48 PM
Response to Reply #6
10. That would work if all americans
1) Knew what was really going on.
2) Had not become so complacent. Unfortunately I think it has probably been much easier for them to take over because of our higher standard of living as compared to the past or 3rd world countries.
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bj2110 Donating Member (802 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-07-04 12:26 AM
Response to Original message
18. kick
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