The Black Box at the Center of Democracy

The story isn’t illegal voters. It never was. The story is who owns the machines that count the votes — and why we have no way to verify what they do.

By Jim Prues  & Jim’s AI buddy ·  World5.org

Every election cycle, the same alarm gets sounded: illegal voters are stealing democracy. It is a powerful story — emotionally vivid, politically useful, and by every credible measure, almost entirely fictional. Verified cases of non-citizen or fraudulent voting occur at rates so vanishingly small they would not change a local school board race, let alone a national one. And yet the story dominates, consuming outrage and legislative energy — while the actual structural vulnerabilities in our elections go almost entirely unexamined.

That is not an accident. Misdirection is a strategy.

Here is what the misdirection is designed to keep you from looking at: the software running your voting machines is privately owned, proprietary, and shielded from independent inspection behind trade secret law. When you cast a vote on a touchscreen terminal, there is no mechanism for you to verify your intent was recorded correctly. When ballots are tabulated by a closed system, the jurisdiction running the election has no independent means of confirmation. They are trusting a corporation’s word. So are you.

A democracy that cannot verify its own elections is not a democracy. It is a ceremony.

The researchers and citizen investigators at This Will Hold have been digging into this with specific, disturbing focus. Their recent piece — “She Won. They Didn’t Just Change the Machines. They Rewired the Election.” — traces a chain of corporate connections that deserves far wider attention: the 2021 sale of Tripp Lite (whose power hardware is physically connected to ES&S and Dominion tabulators across the country) to Eaton Corporation, Eaton’s subsequent deepening partnership with Palantir, the quiet activation of Starlink’s direct-to-cell satellite network just days before the 2024 election, and statistical anomalies in the results that, taken together, they argue cannot be explained by ordinary variance.

Referenced Investigation

“She Won. They Didn’t Just Change the Machines. They Rewired the Election.” — This Will Hold

A detailed investigative piece connecting corporate infrastructure — Tripp Lite, Eaton, Palantir, and Starlink’s DTC activation — to anomalous 2024 election data. Their central argument: the math in multiple recent election cycles does not add up, and the systems involved are structured to prevent anyone from proving why. Read it here →

I want to be precise about what I am saying and what I am not. The connections This Will Hold documents are real — the corporate acquisitions, the partnerships, the technical architecture are all on the record. Whether those connections were deliberately weaponized to alter election outcomes is a claim that has not been confirmed by independent investigators. But here is the thing: the reason it cannot be confirmed is exactly the problem. We lack the transparent, redundant systems that would allow us to know. The opacity is the crime, even if nothing else is.

This is the World 5.0 framing: integrity is not a virtue we perform. It is a structural condition we build. A system has integrity when its inner workings and its outer results are verifiably aligned. By that measure, our current election infrastructure does not have integrity — not because everyone running elections is corrupt, but because the systems they use make verification structurally impossible. The This Will Hold investigators cannot prove their case. That inability is itself the proof of the structural failure.

The solution is not voter ID laws. It is open architecture: voting system code that is publicly audited, hardware that is independently inspected, and results verified through meaningful redundancy — voter-verified paper trails and risk-limiting audits that compare physical records to digital tallies in public, by law, after every election. None of this is theoretical. Colorado has implemented risk-limiting audits that election security experts across the political spectrum point to as a model. The technology exists. The political will to demand it at scale is what we are still building.

Both parties have failed this test — Democrats by avoiding the conversation because it sounds too close to the claims made by bad-faith actors who dispute results they dislike, Republicans by wrapping legitimate concerns about voting technology inside the phantom-voter narrative that poisons the well for everyone. Both postures leave the structural problem intact. Both serve the interests of the companies that profit from opacity.

The immigrants are not coming for your ballot. The machines deserve every question you can raise.

What This Will Hold is doing — following the corporate connections, interrogating the statistical anomalies, refusing to accept that “trust us” is an answer — is precisely what citizens in a self-governing society are supposed to do. Whether or not their specific conclusions hold up to further scrutiny, their core demand is correct: show your work, or you have not earned our confidence.

Confidence built on opacity is not confidence. It is faith — and faith in private corporations is not a foundation for self-governance. The answers we need are available. Open source code, verifiable paper trails, independent audits. The will to demand them is what World 5.0 is about building — in this space, and in every system that structures our collective life.

Jim Prues is the founder of the World 5.0 framework for civilizational transformation, author of World 5.0: We Move From Here. Free download from the website. He writes and produces from Cincinnati.  ·  world5.org

Uprising in Sri Lanka

As our human plight continues, the latest outrage has turned the people of Sri Lanka into revolutionaries, storming the capital and forcing their president to flee the country.

Sri Lankans have taken to the street for months to demand their top leaders step down as the country spiraled into economic chaos that left its 22 million people struggling with shortages of essentials, including medicine, fuel and food. After demonstrators stormed the presidential palace and several other government buildings last week, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled and then resigned.

Much of the protesters’ ire is focused on Rajapaksa and his family’s political dynasty, which ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades. But many also blame Wickremesinghe for protecting Rajapaksa. During demonstrations last week, crowds set his personal residence on fire and occupied his office.

All of this comes on the heels of neighboring India’s massive farm protests, where millions of farmers surrounded major cities, sometimes for months on end, as their shitty government attempted corporate takeovers of crops and practices.

Sadly, storming the capital doesn’t put food in your belly. So many of our sisters and brothers are suffering these days from the diabolical schemes of nation-state governments doing the bidding of ruthless corporations.

Just recently the Sri Lanka parlament voted for a new president, Ranil Wickremesinghe , yet the citizens are clearly unhappy about this newly minted leader. He is very much of the ilk of the former president, and a former prime minister.

“We are very sad, very disappointed with the 225 parliament members who we elected to speak for us, which they have not done,” said Visaka Jayawware, a performance artist in the crowd. “We will keep fighting for the people of Sri Lanka. We have to ask for a general election.”

Like so many other nation states controlled by our corporate world, Sri Lanka is in a horrendous debt situation with China and the International Monetary Fund. Sri Lanka is bankrupt; it is unable to pay for imports of essential goods, including food, medicine and fuel, in part because it is unable to service existing debts given its essentially empty coffers of foreign currency. Spiking inflation has a vast swath of the country’s 22 million people in need of food assistance. Schools and many businesses remain shut, while ordinary citizens wait days in mile-long lines for gas.

Change the time and name it might be Greece, or Poland, or any number of countries where corrupt politicians sell out their citizenry for personal wealth. Naomi Klein identified this process as “Disaster Capitalism”. I like to point out that capitalism isn’t inherently bad, yet it is indeed terrible as enlisted by corporate interests. Honest capitalism is a fine thing. We just don’t have that in our world.

As the ultra elites behind the corporations continue this pattern of destruction and ruined lives, the only hope is transformation. Which is why I remain so enchanted with World 5.0.

Donald Trump Is a Traitor

Even while the January 6th Committee continues its now public hearings, the conclusion is already quite clear. Donald Trump, and many of his enablers including Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife Jinni, are traitors. Before I go on I’m well aware that technically the word ‘traitor’ is attached to trying to overthrow the government via war and ‘sedition’ is the word for using other means to overthrow the government.

Yet that is framing the narrative in a less accurate way. Yes, Donald Trump and company are ‘seditionists’, but that narrative hardly compares to the raw truth – Donald Trump is a traitor. If we note the Constitution Article Three…

The difference between traitor and sedition is that traitor is one who violates his allegiance and betrays his/her country; one guilty of treason; one who, in breach of trust, delivers his country to an enemy, or yields up any fort or place intrusted to his defense, or surrenders an army or body of troops to the enemy, unless when vanquished; also, one who takes arms and levies war against his country; or one who aids an enemy in conquering his country while sedition is organized incitement of rebellion or civil disorder against authority or the state, usually by speech or writing. – from wiki

So, if you write about overthrowing the government it is sedition. If you refuse to defend ‘any fort or place intrusted to his defense, say like the capital building in Washington DC, it is a traitorous act. And Donald Trump is a traitor.

The only reason this isn’t abundantly clear is because our media is owned by corporations whose greed supersedes any devotion, or even interest, in truth. They prefer the ugly muck, confusion and abuse rendered out by our current political system. I have several family members and friends who voted for Trump in 2020. Most of them are now convinced of a false equivalency – that the crazies on the left and right are both crazy, and both must be stopped.

I’m not arguing that all the crazies are on the right, but I will point out the the Proud Boys and Oathkeepers, doing what they did on January 6th of last year at the behest of Trump, are on the right. The white nationalists who are shooting up our kids, church members, shoppers, gays, Asians and whomever else they feel threatened by or animosity towards, sorry about you luck. The lefties are crazy too…

And the crimes of the Lefties? The Portland Uprising seems to be the main contention, and it was peaceful, at least until infiltrated by haters and confronted by unmarked ‘police’. BLM protesters? Marked by their peacefulness. Hmmm. Not the same as killing 20 kids in Uvaldy Texas just recently or the folks of color shopping at a grocery in Buffalo. So try clearing your mind of false equivalencies peddled by Fox News and others and look as clearly as you can at our utterly corrupt culture.

The January 6th attempted takeover of our capitol with the designed intent to halt the validating process that would make Joe Biden president was not a coup attempt but ‘legitimate political discourse’. If that makes any sense to you suffer from some form of cognitive dissonance. You accept lies over truth because it better reflects your values. Tough shit. As Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously stated, “You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.” Words we must heed in there perilous times.

Of course that bizarre day doesn’t exist in isolation. From extremist cops to the take over of school boards and community groups by those with an agenda that is not the public good, we see this playing out every day. The coup is ongoing. It may even continue without Donald Trump. Others like Rick Desantis of Florida may be the new flag bearer. But be not confused. Treason is treason. Joe Biden won that election. Why else would congressmen beg for pardons from Trump even before the events of January 6th? They well knew their behavior was wrong. They were cronies of Donald Trump. They are traitors as well.

I could go on and on, but convincing the Deniers of Truth that they’re wrong is beyond what we can do. What we can do is acknowledge to ourselves and others should the conversation come up. Donald Trump is a traitor.

The Biden Presidency – Volume One

This piece may be premature, as there is a least a small chance Mr. Trump and his Republican allies might pull of The Steal, curiously shouting their motto, Stop the Steal. But for our purposes, we will assume even this beleaguered democracy can hold up through this assault as she has many times before.

The second caveat is the two senatorial races in Georgia, the winners of which will will control the senate. The Democrats need both victories for a 50/50 split where Vice President Kamala Harris becomes the tiebreaker. The legislative power of the Biden presidency will be thwarted by Republican leader Mitch McConnell if the Dems can’t pull of both Georgia victories. And we’ve seen what a toad Mr. Mitch is.

Now the most important point of this whole piece. The reason Donald Trump got over 70 million votes is, along with media bias and our social media bubbles, that way too many folks, especially rural folks, are not seeing their lives get better.

Clinton built up prisons, cut welfare and open the gates to more corporate malfeasance with the end of Glass-Steagall Act, which kept banks away from Wall Street type speculation. And with the 2008 Financial Meltdown, Obama saved the banks and other financial institutions, but showed no love for Main Street. This sort of legacy isn’t helpful.

That right wing ideology plays a factor is a given. Yet that might be 40 or 50 million, not the 70 million votes that Donald Trump received. The truth is that, in spite what many liberals view as ‘crazy’ thinking, many Republican voters trust establishment Democrats even less that Republicans. The neoliberals who run the Democratic Party have done little for the American people. They support corporate control.

But back of President-Elect Biden. In Joe Biden’s 45 years in government, he’s been an establishment figure. He’s never been a progressive, or firebrand, or radical in any way. Yet in his acceptance speech on November 9th, he described America as being at an ‘inflection point’.

Not a big stretch. Among long standing social ills like inequality, climate chaos, institutional failure to control corporations and a failing system of democracy, we throw in this year’s pandemic and the protests prompted by the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, I easily agree. We are at an inflection point. The question is where do we go from here in terms of our federal government.

In these very early days, where President Trump still refuses to acknowledge his loss, we are seeing some early signs that may be promising. Biden’s transition team has some notable progressives, he’s been working with Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and early signs are that he will try to reign in Wall Street and our corporate controllers.

That said, we have seen that our corporate overlords do not easily give up money or power. Indeed, their whole mission is to not give up money or power, so that’s no surprise. What will be a very pleasant surprise is if Biden/Harris have the strength of character to resist thei corporate overtures and threats.

More will become clear once Trump is out of the way and we get through the Georgia runoff races. By then we may have a better sense of where we’re going as a country.

Oh, and the second big point I want to make. There is no doubt public officials respond to public outcry. We made our voices heard in the recent election. We must continue. Engage locally, stay involved nationally, and be ready to march, protest, and write your congress people to push them in the direction we need to go.

If Ours Was a World

Sisters and brothers, we are separated and broken. Fearful for our lives and livelihood. For our families and friends. This is not an easy time. Epidemics are stressful, and our shit was already all broken. 

I could go on and on about the latter, but we already know. Glaringly, corporate greed and human health are incompatible. COVID-19 is providing the magnifying glass on the corporate behaviors that have been wrecking our lives and our planet for decades, corrupting our political process and encouraging endless war.

It was bad law in England 1,000 years ago that allowed for the establishment of ‘limited liability corporations’. These corporations were heavily involved in the conquest that became the British Empire. Our founders were well aware of corporate power and placed great limitations on their existence in the early US. 

Yet today we are completely at their mercy – and now when we have this cultural reset due to the coronavirus. I don’t need to do the litany of corporate crimes, but just now, when congress passes a 2.2 trillion survival bill, most of it goes to corporations. We get $1200 checks. And don’t forget that these same folks underwrote corporate malfeasance for 29 trillion, all told, for the Meltdown of 2008. And if we add those $1200 checks for every American up and figure out the percentage of that 2.2 trillion package? It’s less than .2% of the total. One fifth of one percent. Corporations need to die.

This reshaping of our culture is an opportunity for a new way forward that our species badly needs. We can end the Age of the Corporation. We need good law.

That will not happen with the current administration or one like it. We need a revolution. An uprising against The Corporation. 

Too often a corrupt monarch, dictator or government is overthrown, only to find the new one that replaces it is little or no better. In this crucial time, such is not an option for us.

We need to know where we want to go, how we want to live, and how we want to be with each other. Fortunately, we have a very good sense of where we want to go. Into a world of peace and love.

We are surely about restorative agriculture, green energy, and end to war, universal healthcare and other obvious needs, created with partnerships and co-ops to replace corporations. but I want to get back to a world of peace and love.

We can barely imagine such a world in these times. Where smiles and camaraderie are constant. Where hate is absent. Where people don’t try to hurt each other, and nation states are losing prominence as our main political unit. And yet such a world is possible. We  just won’t get there so long as corporations remain in charge. 

We can thank Occupy for beginning this revelation that corporations must end. We can thank COVID-19 for making it glaringly obvious. And we can thank ourselves if we leverage this moment to make this lovely and beleaguered planet truly our world.

Sheeple No More

The term suggests people who are sheep, easily led to whatever fate. And such has certainly been true for most of us throughout history.

To be clear, there are forces at work that have contributed to our ‘sheepleness’ for a thousand years. Kings and wealthy merchants have little desire for a population that questions everything. “You be sheep, we’ll take care of everything” is a variation of the well-worn elitist mentality.

After the Awakening of the 1960s (Free Love, No More War, Equal Rights, EPA, etc.), the elites made a long-term, strategic investment to turn our institutions toward supporting elitist goals. Socialism bad, low taxes good and similar memes have come to dominate TV and news outlets. Look up Barry Goldwater to learn more of the regressive themes he initiated with the help of lots of money. 

But last November’s election proved we are sheeple no more – at least a growing number of us. The first measure is turnout, where we had the largest non presidential election turn out in 40 years. Nice! Second, it was clearly a Blue Wave. Our new congress has such rich diversity it warms my heart. Third, we’ve learned just how corrupt the system is.  Elites have seen their income clime hundreds of percentages since the 1970s. For the 99%, wages have been flat. 40 fucking years of flat. That gets your attention.

As we turn our political attention to 2020, we see more cause for hope. The Republicans are saddled with Donald Trump, and they may yet regret their feckless support for such a corrupt leader. The Dems have a bunch of folks interested in the job, many with very impressive progressive resumes. I don’t see how the Republicans can hold the presidency, or even the Senate in this political climate.

And it’s not just politics. The Women’s March in 2017 was the largest gathering in history. The March for Our Live, resisting gun violence, was nearly as large, and it was led by teens. Localism, organic food, renewable energy – we are progressing even against such odds and forces.

We have such a huge plethora of change agents and groups that it’s mind-boggling. Old stalwarts like the Sierra Club are joined or upended by the Sunrise Movement (again youth led).  Black Lives Matter is joined by the National Black United Front. Peace activists are expanding like never before. The examples are countless.

So, hurray for us! We’re finally climbing out of the dark hole the old culture stuck us in. We don’t want that world any more. We want a world of abundance and freedom, where the world (Earth) itself thrives along with us.

Let’s keep plowing folks. Our task is in its infancy. We’ve got to end the domination of our ‘Corporate Overlords’ and begin to envision neighborhoods, communities, cities and states where the old mantle of giving all the breaks to elites and corporations no longer flies. In their stead, we do…

Why the Blue Wave Will Hold

As we wind our way to Election, 2018, there is a wide variety of possibilities to unfold. From Trump’s ‘there may be a red wave’ to the possibility of a blue tsunami where Democrats take the Senate as well as the House.

This year’s election is surely crucial, the stakes never higher in my lifetime. If we get more of the same, we will hopefully survive, but we do not improve our fare or our Earth.

Still, there is reason for hope. There’s been and will continue to be plenty of attention. Not just the sick ads that bombard the airwaves, but throughout the US culture. Social media and political websites are abuzz, along with podcasts and youtube. Things are in flux.

We’ve never seen high schoolers who watched their friends get gunned down jump into the election fight. Folks of color, women, millennials – all seem to be more engaged or at least paying more attention. And the rampant corruption from tax cuts to elevating Kavanaugh to ignoring Saudi government murder – to just point out some new stuff – we are on the threshold of something unlike anything we’ve seen before.

Mr. Trump has suggested we could see a ‘Red Wave’ this year, especially with the enthusiasm garnered from getting Brett Kavanaugh confirmed as a supreme court justice. It’s true that some hard core Trumpians applauded the confirmation and will certainly be voting, but their numbers are never over 40% of the general public. And in this case, the way Kavanaugh was pushed through and the way his accusers were disrespected, antagonized as many folks as became enthused.

In spite of the tepid weakness of the Democratic Party, this year is much different. The high schoolers mentioned above are well-engaged, even if as individuals they’re not old enough to vote. “Vote them out” and “We call BS” are two recent terms from the younglings.

Millennials are also far more engaged than in elections past. Along with watching the idiocy and corruption that is Trump, there’s a sense of urgency that didn’t exist before. Maybe they do hope to move out of the basement at some point.

Minorities as well. The swell of support and energy that came from Alexandria Ocasio Cortez victory in the New York primary over summer is a marker that is not lost on Hispanics, Blacks, Native Americans or Puerto Ricans. The number of minority voters who cast votes for Republicans is not large.

But the real motherload of voters that will make this election different are the women. Dean Obeidalla writing for the Daily Beast claims it’s more accurate to speak of a Pink Wave this election cycle. In 2016, Trump actually won the women’s vote, 51% to 49% for Hillary Clinton. Ouch. Did I mention tepid weakness among Democrats?

This year the signs are different. Not only have we had great success in enabling progressive candidates, but as a centrist position becomes less and less viable, folks will embrace one side or the other, and the Republicans aren’t very appealing right now.

But back to the women. The generic ballot now has women favoring Democrats over Republicans by a whopping 30% – 63% to 33%. That’s off the charts, and the highest differential ever recorded. There’s data that suggests especially among higher educated and suburban women, there’s a level of engagement that is unprecedented as well.

With less that three weeks to the election, and with Trump’s daily outrages, it’s hard to imagine an ‘October Surprise’ that could seriously dampen the energy on the left. Not that Trump and those of his ilk won’t try. They have no integrity. But they are no doubt a bit wary now as well. 

They thought citizens would just love big tax breaks for the richest Americans. They thought the Kavanough placement would be a great motivator – but he’s only a motivator for haters. And of course they have all the built in stuff working for them as usual – gerrymandering, voter disenfranchisement, money – oh wait – Democrats, mostly through small donations, are actually ahead of Republicans in fundraising this cycle. Holy crap, batman!

So, at this point we take nothing for granted. We’ve been burned before. We will keep fighting for every last vote until the polls close on November 6th, and we’ll certainly be checking the election results. Onward…

VOTE!

A Nice Turn of the Wheel

Even as we are all here together, events punctuate our lives and culture.There is a deep discontent in our world and lives here in the United States. The world is degrading as are our lives, while signs of emergent sustainability and political engagement abound. Curious times.

The 2017 election brought a host of firsts, and a clear repudiation of Trumpland. 

From new governors in New Jersey and Virginia to lots of state and local races, there seems to be a real resistance to our corrupt federal government and corporations emerging. In Virginia, a transgender candidate, Danica Roem, defeated 14 term beat self declared ‘biggest homophobe in the state’ Bob Marshall. There were other ironies of a similar nature.

Across the nation minorities won a host of mayoral races, along with council seats, school boards and other local positions. And many of these folks were first time candidates, who have seemingly been coming out of the woodwork since Trump got elected.

Republicans in congress put on a ‘brave’ face, but it was clear from their reactions that this was an outcome unexpected and very disconcerting. Indeed, two republican congressmen announced they will not be seeking reelection on election night alone! Even with all the gerrymandered districts across this land, there are far less ‘safe seats’ it would seem, than there were before this election.

Do not consider this piece an endorsement of the Democratic Party. While Tom Perez, head of the DNC, was quick to rejoice at the night’s events, it was not the DNC who carried the day. It was folks rising up and showing we’re not going to take the old crap anymore. Our Revolution, Indivisible, Working Families Party and a host of local efforts to organize and get out the vote who deserve our thanks.

Let’s not forget the role women played in this election either. Both as candidates and voters, women played a substantial role in this turn around. The other notable demographic is college educated white males, suburbanites, who seem to have had enough of Trump and the Republicans. 

Here in Cincinnati, the incumbent, establishment candidate, John Cranley easily defeated the more progressive candidate, Yvette Simpson, for mayor. But in city council, two of the three new members are clear progressives, and the last seat is being contested between Jeff Pastor, a first time candidate under the mayor’s wing, and another strong progressive Michelle Dillingham. We won’t know who wins that seat until absentee and provisional ballots are counted, along with a standard recount. 

As we move toward the 2018 mid-term elections, one wonders how it will play out. Will we see Tea Party like tactics on the left, where more progressive challengers go after establishment democrats in the primaries? Will the energy of this election (some called it a Blue Wave) continue to build? Will the DNC continue to favor the wealthy donors over citizen interests?

Of course, such questions need time before we have answers. What is clear is that the November, 2017 election was a nice turn of the wheel.

A Black Swan Presidential Campaign

The Black Swan theory was developed by Nassim Nicholas Taleb to explain the disproportionate role of high-profile, hard-to-predict, and rare events that are beyond the realm of normal expectations in history, science, finance, and technology. The printing press is an example.

Some recent examples include:

1. The Internet.
2. The earthquake in Japan that created the Fukushima nuclear meltdown.
3. The BP Gulf of Mexico disaster.
4. 9/11.
5. The financial collapse of 2008.

While there may have been a few insiders and visionaries who saw these events coming, they were all massive, culture-shifting events that were not predicted. And while the creation, development and encompassing nature of the Internet has taken 50 years to develop, it’s clearly a Black Swan ‘event’ that was not understood when DARPA started the project in the 1960s.

2016 Election Campaign Swans

In the 2016 presidential election campaigns, the Black Swans are flying in both political parties.

Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee, and if you believe corporate media, Hillary Clinton is similarly poised.

Donald Trump is all about Donald Trump, to a point that makes his election seem catastrophic to most of us. His Black Swan overtaking of the Republican Party has astonished the right, and proven again the fits and starts of Life.

The other Black Swan is obviously Bernie Sanders. He is the other side of the Tao to Donald Trump. Bernie is bringing forth ideas for substantive change, and engaging the younger generation like no other candidate.

And the reason for his popularity is clear. It’s his authenticity, his integrity and his genuine love and compassion. His candidacy and agenda resonate with the reality of millions of us, who do not benefit like the .01%.

The future?

We have yet to learn what will happen at the conventions. But we already know change is afoot like we haven’t faced in a generation or longer. As data-driven historian Peter Turchin said,  “In the United States, 50-year instability spikes occurred around 1870, 1920 and 1970, so another could be due around 2020,” he added. Or we could be witnessing such a Black Swan election cycle this year.

Standing here staring at presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, it’s clear there are forces at work well outside what establishment Republicans assumed and prefer. With a Trump standard bearer, Republican control of both congressional bodies is now in play.

Against this backdrop, establishment Dems [and corporate media] are doing all they can to bolster Hillary Clinton’s campaign. My impression is that they don’t know which they fear more – a Trump presidency or a victorious insurgency by Bernie Sanders. Either is inherently threatening to their power structure. Yet clearly Ms. Clinton is the more vulnerable candidate with her past policies and actions. She holds no moral ground on Mr. Trump. And she does not inspire as Trump and Sanders do.

The Democratic Establishment

What the democratic establishment ignores at its peril…According to writer Bill Boyarsky, “The Sanders team is now the Democratic Party’s activist base, and without its enthusiastic participation, Donald Trump may be elected president in November.” Here we go, folks. Game on!

The inevitable march of time will bring us the final candidates and a new president. The inevitable parroting of mainstream media will keep harping their talking points with little respect for history or truth. And the inevitable nature of change assures us that Black Swan events will continue to mark turning points in our culture.