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Rigged: How the Media, Big Tech, and the Democrats Seized Our Elections
Mollie Hemingway applies her talent—rigorous and thoughtful old-school journalism—to documenting the 2020 assault against America perpetrated by the evil alliance of the progressive movement, the entrenched bureaucracy, modern “journalism”, and big technology firms. Yes, the election was rigged. But the core of Rigged is the story of years of lawfare, private takeovers of election boards by well-funded progressives, ill-considered and/or uncontested consent agreements, the flouting of long-standing election law, and the shielding thereof by a twisted judiciary.
This book does not lay out specific proof that Trump won on November 3, 2020. It does show how the unprecedented surge in mail-in voting, and the suppression of the anti-fraud measures that are supposed to accompany it, made 2020 a perfect storm for untraceable fraud. Meanwhile, the media’s four-year campaign to oust Trump by any means necessary ground on, with regular assistance from an entrenched bureaucracy willing to do anything to avoid draining the swamp. Add in a huge assist by abrupt changes in the censorship practices of big social media firms, and you have the tools to lift a mediocre basement-dweller over the most energetic and energizing politician of my lifetime. (I’m 54, fwiw.)
My copy of Rigged, pictured, is festooned with Post-It flags for the statements and quotations that were new to me or struck me as particularly significant. I can’t possibly mention them all in this review—I placed 77 of these markers. But I can hit the highlights of each chapter.
Mollie sets the stage with a brief prologue, letting you know that you aren’t crazy if you think Trump’s victory was stolen.
The first chapter is a discussion of the changes in voting laws over the history of the United States, from pre-colonial times to the present. Some of this was completely new to me, especially that the secret ballot wasn’t really all that secret until late in the 19th century, with the introduction of “Australian-style” ballots printed by the government. Fully public and partially public voting practices prior to this were shockingly prone to coercion and fraud, especially in the form of vote-buying. The reforms of the time were particularly focused on abolishing voting by mail, and eliminating long time periods for voting. Election day was established by amendment to be the Tuesday after the first Monday of November to avoid influencing the outcome of states that voted later in the calendar based on reports of the outcome in other states. Mollie’s exposition shows how we (these United States) are going backward to known-abusive voting procedures.
The second chapter discusses how Trump’s enemies were strewn through the establishment, and included antagonistic Republicans. Trump’s policies are poison for big-government enthusiasts in both parties, and those policies’ successes across a variety of topics were embarrassing to the failures that preceded him. His foreign policy successes, like Peace in the Middle East, demonstrated the bankruptcy of the establishment’s own policy preferences. Meanwhile, Trump’s economic policies were so successful, across all classes and among minorities, that re-alignment of traditional Democratic constituencies was in full swing. The establishment desperately needed to stop Trump.
The third chapter lays out the impact Covid-19 had on the presidential contest. And how every twist and turn in the course of events was portrayed in the media in the worst possible light for Trump, and the best possible light for his antagonists (particularly Cuomo in New York), regardless of the hypocrisy. The politicization of science, already a grave problem in any topic that lives on public research funds, reached new heights in 2020 (and continuing today, I might add). Mollie doesn’t really dwell on the scientific details of Covid-19, as that isn’t really relevant to the theme of Rigged. Her presentation is focused on the excuse Covid provided for activists to push a huge expansion of mail-in voting—precisely the tool needed to enable untraceable fraud on a grand scale.
Chapter four moves on to the horrifying violence that engulfed major cities in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd at the knee of Derek Chauvin. The initial impressions of Floyd’s demise, now known to be not quite so simple, were seized by anti-police activists in the black community to advance their agenda. An agenda that is Marxist to its core, and contemptuous of American standards of justice. Mollie lays out point after point showing how the progressive movement’s vested interest in stopping Trump’s gains in minority communities led its politicians, media apologists, and social media censors to do everything they could to keep tensions simmering. And to hide the truth about Antifa and BLM activist behavior.
Chapter five covers the convention season, and how the lackluster “virtual” convention held by the Democrats was outshone by a very unconventional Republican convention. Unconventional because all the usual players were unavailable, and the Charlotte host site was effectively sabotaged by North Carolina’s Democrat governor. The good news for Trump could not be allowed to stand, and the mainstream news media leveraged conveniently anonymous sources to gin up a controversy over a canceled visit to a military cemetery in France. That numerous eyewitnesses contradicted the “sources”, insisting that Trump did not defame any soldiers, was ignored. Corrections to the record were naturally held until they could help Trump anymore. No apologies from Fake News, of course.
Chapter six describes the debate season and the journalist malpractice that surrounded it. Mollie highlights the shameful conduct of the Commission on Presidential Debates and points out that it is likely to have no future.
Chapter seven is a deep dive into Big Tech’s assistance to the progressive movement, with a particular focus on the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), Mark Zuckerberg’s vehicle for buying elections. Specifically, CTCL gave huge sums, with strings attached, to election boards around the country. The strings were basically to push mail-in voting to the max, and eliminate the signature matches, address checks, witness requirements, and any other anti-fraud measure that normally accompanies mail-in voting. And “cooperate” with CTCL “advisors”. Mollie documents how that meant CTCL running some elections. Georgia was the biggest recipient, at $31 million. More on that in chapter ten.
Chapter eight is all about Hunter. And all the trouble he creates for the Biden family while leading the family’s worldwide grift. Trouble that reflects poorly on his father, and so must be suppressed. Especially the classic October surprise: Hunter’s abandoned laptop with oodles of embarrassing and incriminating content. The journalistic malpractice (or to be more honest, malice) was breathtaking. Major media, big tech, and bureaucrats closed ranks to silence all news about this event. At least until the election was safely in Biden’s pocket. Yes, anyone inclined to bypass major news media for more trustworthy sources knew all about it, but the general public doesn’t do this. Numerous polls, after the fact, show that earlier knowledge of this scandal would have changed many Biden voters’ minds. More than enough to flip the result.
Chapter nine is about the legal and judicial shenanigans used in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania to suppress the Green Party and candidates that would siphon voter support on the left, plus an account of similar legal and judicial misconduct to suppress poll-watchers and post-election challenges to signature verification misconduct. The election boards in both states flouted state laws with impunity, thanks to sympathetic judges. Mollie throws stones at Rudy Guiliani, too. He disrupted Trump’s legal efforts quite badly, as Mollie explains.
The tenth and final chapter focuses on Georgia’s Fulton County and Georgia’s Secretary of State, Brad Raffensburger. As a Georgia resident myself, much of this has been covered locally ad nauseam. However, one bit about Raffensburger’s stonewalling on FOIA requests, requests needed by Mark Davis, a local election integrity expert, for Trump’s legal challenges, left my jaw on the floor. I was already upset at Raffensburger for the outrageous consent agreement that changed mail-in ballot handling, but the sheer malice towards conservatism shown by the post-election conduct Mollie documents has me furious. Not to mention the mind-boggling revelation that Raffensburger’s right hand in the office is a clear Democrat activist.
Mollie adds a brief epilogue to tie it all back together.
I thoroughly enjoyed Mollie’s writing, and learned a few things I’d missed in the past year or so. I highly recommend you get your own copy.
Published in Elections
I would love to know why you liked DeWine’s COVID-19 policy.
Nice of you to put it more fairly. The problem is nobody could respond to Zuckerberg. It was too different and he did it in the middle of September. It’s terrible. If you don’t think of it any other way I absolutely don’t get it. Billionaires renting the election system.
This is basically my view.
And, they didn’t just “figure out the rules and strategy and quickly adapted…” They changed the rules illegally/unconstitutionally for their benefit.
Can you imagine the press if Trump was president?
In the big picture, Gary is making the argument against Principles First and for Trump.
If you make his head explode, I’m not cleaning it up!
We don’t live in the world that Gary has in his head. It took me a long time to quit thinking like that.
I think Jesse Kelly is the leading thinker on this type of thing right now.
And by refusing to hear pre-election concerns, judges effectively held to a standard that denied time needed to establish fraud after the elections even if standing was not an issue. The legal system, including the judiciary, showed itself to be totally corrupt in election fraud issues and voters’ rights. Why have a legal system if it ignores (or validates the fraudulence of) one of the most fundamental rights in a republic, of a fair election? Once that is gone, all law is a matter of whim and bias.
Except it seems likely to have been more than just get-out-the-LEGITIMATE-vote. Or else what’s the point in making sure all these operations are run by Democrats?
The operative words are concierge and inside.
I guess under prevailing theories of law and morality asking these questions is tantamount to treason and anyone contemplating them is a domestic terrorist. Do I have that right?
My book arrived yesterday. Mark and I swapped some texts about it. I’m starting at the beginning and reading it through. Mark dove into the Georgia chapter. He pointed out to me that some of the data analysis that I did for him wound up in the book. Mark gave me a list of 146 Georgia addresses that had 50 or more people registered to vote. I found hotels, empty fields, abandoned warehouses, RV campsites, office buildings, university dining halls, thrift shops, jewelry stores etc. My favorite is a 1930’s house in a upper middle class neighborhood that has ~2900 sq ft of floor space that has 60 people registered to vote at that address. And a trailer park and an empty field in a small town in the Northeast corner of Georgia that both have exactly 105 registered voters. Both of them, exactly 105 people. What an amazing coincidence. But as Kevin Williamson will so knowingly tell you: nothing to see here, just move along.
Man, 105 here, 105 there and soon you are talking about real voting impact.
146*50 (or more) = 62% of the difference between Biden and Trump, minimum.
This list (which was 146 addresses long) ranged from 50 registered voters to 2096 registered voters per address. All told the list documented 26,665 voters. But as we are so wisely being advised: nothing to see here. Just move along.
All that tells me is stupid people shouldn’t vote. They also had some stupid people on the buses giving instructions to people they were busing to the polls in Florida 2000..
The founders anticipated as much. That is one reason we have the electoral college system.
I’m too busy today.
If those 50 people voted Republican, I suspect that somebody would have been in jail the day after the election. This sort of thing is so simple to track down, that the only way to not see it is to not look. Which is exactly what America is doing…
Some dangerous stuff in Gary’s review. For example, the two can play this game suggestion about lawsuits and billionaire funding … if elections come down to who can do the best rigging, then no election will ever be seen as legitimate. This is secession/civil war enabling tactic.
This is the Amistad Project guy.
Thanks for the overview of the book. I can’t wait to read it.
This week, news broke that employees of the Fulton County Elections office shredded some voter registration forms. https://www.11alive.com/article/news/politics/elections/fulton-county-elections-shredding/85-3b57d800-dafd-4369-b154-312e347f8b74 An investigation is underway. SB 202, the elections reform legislation passed earlier this year by the Georgia Legislature allows for a takeover of local elections offices that are habitual law and rule breakers. The process has begun against Fulton County and this latest snafu will only strengthen the case against them.
The Constitution is not a suicide pact. Free speech does not give you the right to cry “fire” in a crowded theater. During the Civil War, and other wars, soldiers are allowed to vote absentee. The Republican Party failed to do its due diligence. Yes, I wanted Trump out. Yes, I felt and feel that in the face of the pandemic, we needed to have more absentee voting. For a long, long time, in Arizona a majority of votes are cast by absentee, and my Sainted Republican Mother and I have cast our votes by absentee voting. That doesn’t mean that I support the game playing by the Democrats, and in Arizona we banned “ballot harvesting” well before the 2020 election.
Facebook and Twitter weren’t around during Ike’s, and Reagan’s days, and if they were around, they were babies in W’s days. In 2016, Trump capitalized on Facebook and Twitter and Hillary cried unfair. The Dems got going and used Facebook, Twitter and new technologies in 2020. So instead of whinning, it is time for the Republican Party to get busy, stop whining, and match the Democrats.
Actually, it does, as a matter of case law. Especially if there really is a fire, but even if there isn’t.
https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/11/its-time-to-stop-using-the-fire-in-a-crowded-theater-quote/264449/
Others have contributed rebuttals, so I won’t do a proper fisking. But this one item can’t be allowed to stand:
I attended this rally. It was anything but disastrous, except for the astonishingly biased media coverage. Honest coverage from this attendee is available here:
https://ricochet.com/771146/my-first-trump-rally/
So I trust that you have been vaccinated?
Chris Wallace is the best journalist at FNC. However, I terribly miss Tony Snow, and I mourn his loss.
Well, the Democrats found a way to file lawsuits to open up absentee ballots before the election. Why the heck didn’t the Republicans file their own lawsuits to increase security before the election? Why the heck didn’t the Republicans file motions to intervene in those lawsuits before the election.
Child Protective Services (now the Department of Child Safety) and take children from negligent or abusive parents, and file Dependency Petitions, only to have grandparents represented by Gary Robbins file motions to intervene to force their way into those lawsuits. When CPS tried to stop me, I went to the legislature to create a right of participation by foster parents and relatives. When CPS filed a Special Action to stop me, I won in the Court of Appeals.
Motions to intervene are not easy, but they are not impossible. Time for the Republican Party to get its act together before the election, and to not whine after the election.
Ah, the “Scarlet B.” You are ignoring arguments and attacking the person who has pointed out that Republicans blew the election before it occurred.
Phil already did that with his review.