Greg Palast Discusses the Many Big Problems with Mail Voting

Greg Palast is keeping me up at night. Here's an excerpt from his discussion with Mike Papantonio:

Papantonio: Let’s start with the elephant in the room, the vote by mail. A lot of developments there in the past few days. Tell us what this administration's done and give us the whole Greg Palast vote by mail 10,000 foot, so we can move on to the next question. What's your take?

Palast: Wow. Okay. Here's the problem. 22% of all mail in ballots don't get counted. That's an MIT study. That's not Greg Palast. A one in five ballots is junked. Now, how does that happen? One in 10 people never get their ballot who've asked for them. By the way, that’s why we had those long lines in Georgia, those are African Americans in Atlanta who never got their mail in ballots, but it requested them. Including, by the way, the husband of the head of the ACLU in Georgia. So people don't get their ballot, that's number one. And number two, once you send them in, one in 10 is junked for any type of reason. Anyone can challenge your ballot in America. They don't like your signature, you didn't put your middle initial when you signed and you registered with the middle initial. Postage due cost a hundred thousand votes in 2016. 3.3 million ballots in 2016 that were mailed in were never counted…

Papantonio: What we have here is an election that's tightening up. The Democrats thought they had the leisure of Biden's double digit lead. It's shrinking as we speak. It’s shrinking in states that really matter, swing States. But the Democrats, I literally heard James Carville say, well, Biden can just stay down in the cellar and he's going to win this election. Doesn't that sound a lot like what they were talking about with Hillary Clinton? So I wonder, the vote by mail could be important. How safe is vote by mail? How safe is it?

Palast: Not in the least and this is the big problem. Because you can have all these jerks in Hawaiian shirts, the Boogaloo Boys, the Proud Boys, they're going to go in… Trump’s calling for 50,000 volunteers. It's not an intimidation army. People have that wrong. The real danger’s that are going to go in and say, I don't like that signature on that ballot. That ballot was taped shut instead of a sealed shut by licking the envelope. I'm not kidding. And if you think it's just Republicans who do that, in New York this past last week the Democratic Party challenged the counting of 28,000 mail-in ballots, — the Democratic Party. Once they established that precedent, how many ballots do you think Trump's people will challenge? How many millions I should say. So it's not safe to mail in your ballot.

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Why the University of California System Stopped Using the SAT

Why did the UC system stop using the SAT? This article by Andrew Conway offers some insight "The University of California and The SAT: Speaking the Truth?." Here is an excerpt:

Here are two main conclusions from the report:

“Overall, both grades and admissions test scores are moderate predictors of college GPA at UC. The predictive power of test scores has gone up, and the predictive power of high school grades has gone down, since the 2010… study of this issue. At present, test scores are a slightly better predictor of freshman grades than high school grades are. Both grades and scores are stronger predictors of early outcomes (freshman retention and GPA) than of longer-term outcomes (eventual graduation and graduation GPA).”

“Test scores contribute significant predictive power across all income levels, ethnic groups, across both first-generation and non-first-generation students, and across all campuses and majors.” Based on these results (and more), the special task force recommended that the UC continue to use the SAT in the admissions process.

But then, on May 21, 2020, the University of California Regents released a statement. They announced their decision to drop the SAT requirement for all applicants to all UC schools. I was shocked. Drop the SAT? Why?

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Missouri Republican Politicians Attempt to Commit Fraud on Gerrymandering Ballot Measure: Slapped Down by Court

Excellent court ruling today on the upcoming Missouri proposed Amendment, as reported by "No on 3," which opposes this upcoming ballot measure (because it unravels anti-gerrymandering provisions Missouri voters overwhelmingly approved two years ago). The court scolded the Republicans who crafted the ballot language. The court then rewrote the ballot language. The judge ruled that the Republican proposed language was “misleading, unfair, and insufficient.” In making this ruling, Judge Patricia Joyce prevented a massive fraud on Missouri citizens.

"No on 3" spokesperson Sean Soendker Nicholson sums it up:

Politicians may lie to our faces about what they’re trying to do with Amendment 3, but they can’t lie in what appears on the ballot,” said Sean Soendker Nicholson, Campaign Director for the No on Amendment 3 campaign. “Everyone needs to understand that politicians are trying to trick voters by hiding a deceptive gerrymandering plan in the state constitution. The whole goal of their plan is to protect incumbent politicians in rigged maps drawn in back rooms by lobbyists and political operatives.

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Purported Protesters Display Who They Are on the Streets of Portland Oregon

On Twitter, Andy Ngo is documenting the horrific conduct on the streets of Portland and Seattle, night after night. I forced myself to watch about 10 of these videos over the past week. The videos are graphic and highly disturbing, many involving beatings of non-violent people. Rampant morally reprehensible behavior, despite the claim that these are "protesters." Police almost entirely absent.

There has been no coverage for the past ten days from the New York Times or NPR. Based on these videos, another Twitter user recently posted: "Portland was a nice city last time I visited. Now it's ruled by violent mobs. #failedstate"

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The Best Kind of Free Speech is Antithetical to Cancel Culture

From FIRE's Website:

"FIRE is a free-speech organization, but we’ve always interpreted “free speech” to mean something larger, older, and bolder than just your legal rights. Given that we are also concerned with academic freedom, I’ve also focused on how to make discussions productive, and how to promote tolerance for people you disagree with. Of particular importance in higher education is determining how to keep an atmosphere of robust debate, thought experimentation, and innovation alive and healthy.

From a very early stage, FIRE advocated for what could roughly be called a “culture of free speech,” where we seriously consider the ideas most opposed to our own, debate and persuade those who disagree with us, consider people’s intentions, and give space for error and forgiveness when faced with mistakes. This is the antithesis of cancel culture, which attempts to reduce individuals to a singular offensive statement or action, remove them from mainstream society, and inflict grave social costs on anyone who might defend them."

What can you do to promote these ideas? Read "What you can do right now to help protect you or your campus from cancel culture." at the same website.

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