Florida Recount Redux
by Stephen Lendman (stephenlendman.org – Home – Stephen Lendman)
Shades of 2000 and arguably the most infamous ever US Supreme Court decision, and they’ve been plenty of others in the court’s disturbing history.
In 2000, majority justices halted the Florida recount on spurious grounds, falsely claiming it violated the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, an implausible argument but it held.
For the first time in the history of countless US rigged federal, state, and local elections, the Supremes halted a state recount, annulled the nationwide popular vote in Gore’s favor, and installed the Bush/Cheney regime in power.
Months later when it was too late to matter, a National Opinion Research Center tabulation of all uncounted votes showed Gore won Florida and the presidency. He knew it all along but didn’t contest.
Would it have made a difference? Highly unlikely! Gore was part of the dirty system as a House and Senate member, later as Clinton co-presidency vice president.
Throughout his public life, he supported privileged interests exclusively. He always put politics over responsible principles and popular interests.
His disturbing record showed he was and remains pro-war, pro-business, anti-progressive. His environmental activism is phony. He’s no friend of the earth.
He wrote about harmful auto emissions and need to phase out internal combustion engines – yet did nothing in Congress and as vice president to achieve these objectives.
He supported hugely anti-labor, anti-environment, anti-consumer, anti-democratic NAFTA. A decade after its enactment, about a million US jobs were lost.
He and the Clintons were friends of Wall Street, the military/industrial/security complex, Big Oil, GMO producers, and other interests harmful to human health and welfare.
They shilled for the nuclear industry, exacerbating, not alleviating, global warming.
He, Bill, and Hillary Clinton supported all US wars of aggression, including the 1994 Rwanda genocide, the rape of Yugoslavia, intermittent terror-bombing of Iraq in the 1990s, and genocidal sanctions on the country.
It was responsible for killing 5,000 Iraqi children under age-five monthly, the genocide defended by the regime’s secretary of state Madeleine Albright, infamously saying: “We think the price is worth it” – a view shared by the Clintons and Gore by permitting it.
Everyone allowed to serve as US president, vice president, or in key congressional posts, is vetted to assure they support dirty business as usual – divergence not tolerated.
Trump proved it straightaway in office by surrendering to the longstanding system – supporting virtually everything benefitting privileged interests at the expense of most others at home and abroad.
Notably it includes endless US wars of aggression, support for NATO and anti-consumer/corporate coup d’etat trade deals, and harsh Russian sanctions, things he criticized while campaigning.
Florida and Ohio are key swing states. Candidates for the nation’s highest office virtually always win by carrying these states.
No GOP presidential aspirant ever won without taking Ohio. In 26 of 38 elections since 1860 (the year Lincoln won), winners of the presidency carried Florida.
Races for senator and governor in the state are important, winners indicating which wing of the nation’s one-party state have more support, a potential sign of how the state will go in the next presidential election.
Florida is headed for a recount in both Senate and gubernatorial races – their outcomes too close to call.
GOP candidates narrowly lead in both races. Under state law, a machine recount is ordered if the margin of victory equals or is less than 0.5%.
If less than 0.25%, a manual recount of all votes is triggered. Tallies show Dem candidate Senator Bill Nelson trails GOP Governor Rick Scott by 0.15%.
Dem gubernatorial aspirant/Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum trails former GOP House member Ron DeSantis by 0.41%.
A manual recount of state votes for senator and machine recount for governor were ordered.
If the machine recount is less than 0.25%, a manual recount will follow. It’ll likely take time to determine the winners of these races, especially if losers contest by filing lawsuits.
Unlike Al Gore’s surrender to Bush/Cheney in 2000, Nelson and Gillum support recounting all votes – perhaps to show they won, not lost, as tallies so far show.
The 2000 presidential race was stolen, notably with majority Supreme Court help. The winner lost and loser won.
The outcomes of Florida’s senatorial and gubernatorial races remain to be determined.
A Final Comment
Georgia’s gubernatorial race is too close to call, Dem candidate Stacy Abrams unwilling to concede the office she may have won. She’s trying to become the first ever Black US governor.
Initial tallies show she trails GOP Georgia secretary of state Brian Kemp by 63,000 votes. She argued that tens of thousands of provisional and military ballots need to be counted – an official winner so far not declared.
Trump raged against Florida and Georgia recounts, tweeting: “You mean they are just now finding votes in Florida and Georgia — but the Election was on Tuesday? Let’s blame the Russians and demand an immediate apology from President Putin…It is time to move on!”
Thousands of ballots remain uncounted in both states and elsewhere, including absentee and provisional ones.
Final midterm results are prelude for what’s likely to be a highly contentious 2020 presidential election. It’s unclear which undemocratic Dem will run against Trump.
Will two-time loser Hillary declare her candidacy again? If so and if nominated, will her unpopularity doom her a third time?
My newest book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
