Like Nothing

November 23rd, 2012 | Posted by jclifford in Activism | Media - (2 Comments)

Facebook is proposing to do away with all democracy in its privacy system, eliminating the right for users to vote on changes in its policies. This change may be the last vote ever for Facebook users. Thanks to the online activism of Our Policy, there are over 11,000 comments on Facebook’s proposed vote elimination, well over the 7,000 comment threshold that triggers a vote.

social media privacy policyAlmost all the comments are in opposition to the proposed vote elimination.

Now comes the hard part… getting 300 million users to participate in the vote. Even if 99 percent of voting Facebook users oppose the policy, their votes will be ignored if fewer than 300 million users participate in the voting process.

Ironically, Facebook cites this high threshold of voter participation as a reason to change its policies. Of course, Facebook could reform the voting system, but its corporate officers prefer to democratic processes almost completely.

There is one democratic option left to Facebook users: They are free to change their own social media behavior. They could choose to stop clicking like on corporate advertisements in exchange for small discounts in retail stores. They could choose merely to “like” their friends’ personal postings, or to stop clicking “like” altogether, leaving only comments.

People upset with Facebook could transition to other social media sites. They could engage in efforts to confuse the Big Data system, engaging in massive campaigns of “likes” of things they dislike.

Or, current Facebook users could innovate off-line social media – completely off-computer, where information can’t be tracked.

Many options are available to current Facebook users who are fed up with the social media corporation’s intrusions into users’ private lives.

What option do you choose to take?

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In Post to Financiers, Douglas Schoen Indicates Americans Elect will Move Forward Without Democracy

November 8th, 2012 | Posted by Jim Cook in Alternative Parties | Americans Elect | Politics - (4 Comments)

Forbes, the magazine of record for America’s financiers, published an editorial by Douglas Schoen, longtime advisor to both Americans Elect and Michael Bloomberg. In this editorial, Schoen praised the decision by three Wall Street tycoons — Peter Ackerman, John Burbank III and Michael Bloomberg — to chip in $1.75 million of their own money to Americans Elect and spend it, through the Americans Elect Super PAC, on the election of Angus King to the Senate. Schoen writes:

Candidate Angus King’s victory in the Maine Senate race is one such ray of hope…. It also involved a coalition between Americans Elect, the group which succeeded in getting 50 state ballot access but failed to recruit a Presidential candidate, its visionary chairman Peter Ackerman and Mayor Michael Bloomberg who made a significant contribution to King’s campaign. Even though the Bloomberg/Americans Elect endeavor — one that I was truly proud to be part of — was outspent nearly 5 to 1, King still managed an overwhelming victory.

Schoen indicates that Americans Elect’s Super PAC spending will continue in future elections, with the $1.75 million in Wall Street money just a “first step,” a “beginning” effort:

The efforts of Americans Elect and particularly the efforts of Mayor Bloomberg around the country are a tremendous first step in promoting the type of bipartisanship we will need to avoid fiscal and economic problems in the near future. They have begun the process of crafting a new, moderate and bi-partisan vision for America, a vision that we so desperately need.

I was proud to be part of those efforts both in Maine and around the country and believe that it is only through the effort to create independent caucuses in both the House and Senate that we have a chance to resolve the endemic problems we face in our country.

Schoen’s editorial calls for the continued spending of big Wall Street money on elections by Americans Elect, spending that happened without any of the input on the decision to which rank-and-file Americans Elect delegates are entitled. In his editorial, Schoen called repeatedly for the creation of a caucus in the Congress to the liking of his employer, Michael Bloomberg. Schoen called for lawmakers to stop agreeing and “come together” around the set of policy proposals Americans Elect and Michael Bloomberg prefer.

But if you read carefully, you’ll notice an activity that Douglas Schoen doesn’t call for, a word Douglas Schoen doesn’t use.

That missing word is “democracy.” Schoen doesn’t call for a democracy. In lauding the deployment of Americans Elect funds, Schoen calls for more Wall Street spending on elections — a result — and not a democratic process.

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Americans Elect Strikes Again with Halloween Spending on the Maine Senate Race

November 1st, 2012 | Posted by Jim Cook in Alternative Parties | Americans Elect | Election 2012 | Ethics | Politics | State and Local - (2 Comments)

When it was trying to win the support of the American people, the corporation called Americans Elect made a pledge not to support or oppose any political candidate. It was a neutral player in the political system, Americans Elect told us; it was just trying to strengthen democracy. To that end, Americans Elect pledged that “All Delegates and persons registered to vote in Americans Elect have a fundamental right to fully and meaningfully participate in the business and affairs of Americans Elect without any monetary encumbrance.”

But after the little people who make up an actual democracy refused to fall in line behind the Americans Elect corporate office, Americans Elect left the little people behind. At the beginning of October 2012, Americans Elect broke its promise, spending money to support Senate candidate Angus King. No vote was held on the issue. Delegates weren’t even informed of the action. Only three people were involved in the decision: billionaire Wall Street tycoon Michael Bloomberg, multimillionaire Wall Street player John Burbank the Third, and multimillionaire Wall Street player Peter Ackerman.

Americans Elect didn’t stop with one such action. They did it again the following week.

Then they did it again.

Then, yes, they did it again.

A few days ago, they did it again.

Yesterday, as the moon rose for Halloween, Americans Elect made its latest expenditure, producing another television advertisement promoting the candidacy of Angus King for Senate.

Americans Elect held no votes on the issue. Americans Elect didn’t solicit input from its delegates. Americans Elect didn’t even inform its delegates of the action.

When Americans Elect makes its next pivot and starts making some big new promises, remember how the corporation treated its old promises.

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Americans Elect’s Three Wall Street Money Leaders: Watch Us Buy More Elections

October 8th, 2012 | Posted by Jim Cook in Alternative Parties | Americans Elect | Economy | Election 2012 | Politics - (5 Comments)

Once heralding democracy for everyone, Americans Elect has restricted its voting membership down from tens of thousands of people to just three individuals: the individual Wall Street tycoon Peter Ackerman, the individual Wall Street tycoon Michael Bloomberg, and the individual Wall Street hedge fund Passport Capital (yes, corporations are people). Democracy works best when the money people decide. In an unprecedented unanimous vote, the two tycoons and the one hedge fund voted unanimously to endorse Maine Senate candidate Angus King… and to funnel $1.75 million into promoting his campaign, making Americans Elect Angus King’s biggest funder.

Now, as AE Transparency reports, the two tycoons and one hedge fund comprising Americans Elect promises more democracy just like this:

Americans Elect’s hired mouthpiece, attorney Daniel Winslow told the Boston Globe: “As Maine goes, so goes the country. The country and Mainers are hungry for problem-solving, independent candidates running for important offices…. If he is successful, Americans Elect will participate in the upcoming election cycle to develop 3, 5, or 10 more Angus Kings representing an independent caucus to bridge the divide between the partisan extremes, to turn the tide of gridlock in Washington, and to put us onto a course of government the American people want and deserve.”

The problem with AECorp’s old strategy was that while “the country [is] hungry for problem-solving independent candidates,” it nonetheless proved to be the case that the country — as represented by Americans Elect’s delegates in its online nominating convention — proved not to be hungry for precisely those candidates which Pete Ackerman and his henchmen personally favored. So it was necessary to destroy the village (the old AECorp) to save it. AE now retreats back to the time-tested cynical strategy of simply enabling a few ultra-rich individuals to throw wads of money around influencing elections, thus handily side-stepping the problem of the inherent untidiness of actual democracy.

Based on Americans Elect’s recent redefinition of “democracy,” AE Transparency issues a prediction:

We here at AE Transparency have been in the business of predicting AECorp’s future ever since its appearance on the national stage, with (we blush to admit) uncanny accuracy. Here’s our prediction for the rest of AE’s future. The Corporation will indeed, as Winslow has warned us, throw tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars in the next election cycle into promoting the candidacies of its hand-picked favorite ‘independents’, with increasingly visible participation by Mike Bloomberg. This cycle’s King’s Gambit is merely a test-drive. Then, with this coterie of nominally independent (but financially dependent) sycophants in its pocket, doing its bidding (for how else could they be re-elected?) and aping its words, AECorp will go after its long-sought brass ring: putting Bloomberg himself in the White House in 2016.

In short, Ackerman Selects has simply abandoned the short con, in favor of the long con.

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FEC Documents Reveal the Functional Center of Americans Elect: Wall Street Money

October 8th, 2012 | Posted by Jim Cook in Alternative Parties | Americans Elect | Election 2012 | Ethics | Media | Politics | State and Local - (0 Comments)

Meet the voters of Americans Elect. There are only three of them.

Voter #1: Michael Bloomberg. Voter qualification: $500,000 in Wall Street money.
Michael Bloomberg made billions of dollars selling high-priced infrastructure to Wall Street traders, allowing those gain unusually quick access to company information so they could make better trades and make more money than the average American.

Voter #2: Peter Ackerman. Voter qualification: $500,000 in Wall Street money.
Peter Ackerman made hundreds of millions of dollars as the right-hand man of Junk Bond King Michael Milken, the Wall Street big money investor who went to prison for 2 years for insider trading. His current net worth is undisclosed. Peter Ackerman became a voter with Americans Elect by putting up $500,000 of the proceeds.

Voter #3: Passport Capital. Voter qualification: $750,000 in Wall Street money.
Mitt Romney says “corporations are people,” and Americans Elect proves it by enfranchising the wealth management hedge fund firm Passport Capital Limited Liability Corporation as its third of three voters. Sure, Americans Elect asks the FEC to make the payment “attributable to” John Burbank the Third, but according to the FEC Passport Capital cut the check for $750,000.

In an exercise of closed-door democracy, these three representatives of Wall Street money voted unanimously to endorse Angus King for the open U.S. Senate seat in Maine. After the unanimous vote, money flowed quickly to Angus King through the following channels, including long-time Bloomberg campaign aides Douglas Schoen and SKDKnickerbocker:

Infographic Follow the Money From America's Wall Street Wealth through Americans Elect to Angus King

What about the thousands of official Americans Elect delegates and millions of other Americans who were promised “a true voice” in choosing Americans Elect candidates?

Christine Todd Whitman promising Americans Elect delegates that every American would have a true voice in picking Americans Elect candidates, March 2012

You can forget the springtime promises and pledges in the Official Bylaws and all that. The Official Bylaws are toilet paper. The new Official Enfranchised Voters gain their privileges by making six-figure donations. For the rest of you, your new title with Americans Elect is Chump. Your new role is to stand mutely and applaud. If you refuse to do that, don’t worry. The Americans Elect corporation will buy some stock footage of some other applauding Chumps.

Source: Federal Election Commission. Mirror available here.

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You Choose? Americans Elect Changes its Tune, Buying Angus King for Senate Ads without a Vote

October 5th, 2012 | Posted by Jim Cook in Alternative Parties | Americans Elect | Election 2012 | Ethics | Politics | Video - (11 Comments)

When the 501(c)(4) corporation Americans Elect was trying to convince people in 2010, 2011 and 2012 to give it money and participate in its process, it promised that Americans Elect had no hidden agenda, no favored candidates. Americans Elect promised that the people, not its corporate leaders, would choose candidates:

“Your voice matters. You decide the issues. You choose the candidates.”

Last night and this morning, the following advertisement started appearing on TV screens around Maine, the state in which I live:

Minutes ago, the Online Sentinel confirmed what own my eyes saw today.

Americans Elect promised you that its process wouldn’t be rigged.

Americans Elect swore that its corporate leadership had no favored candidates, and even enacted official rules and bylaws to prohibit that.

When it fundraised, Americans Elect told you that the delegates of Americans Elect would be the ones to choose candidates.

Americans Elect official corporate rules and bylaws declared that in order to change those official rules, it would have to post public notice and allow delegates to overrule such changes: “Any Delegate who wishes to reverse any decision of any Committee or Board may do so by sending a statement of 500 words or less by email to the Board within 72 hours after notice of any decision is posted on the Website.” No such notice has been made.

Americans Elect has threatened to sue the pants off people interested in building local Americans Elect chapters independent of corporate headquarters.

But all on its own, without any change of rules as provided for in its bylaws, without any notice to its delegates, the corporate board of Americans Elect has funnelled half a million dollars in two days into advertisements blanketing the state of Maine with promoting Angus King for Senate.

Without any democratic process, the Americans Elect corporation has appropriated its funds for the direct and undemocratic support of a major political candidate’s re-election campaign. This is a direct contradiction of the principles, rules and bylaws Americans Elect committed itself to for the 2012 elections.

No promise Americans Elect can ever make can restore this broken trust. There is simply no reason to ever believe Americans Elect again.

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Americans Elect Lawyer Inadvertently Calls for Reform of Americans Elect System

July 23rd, 2012 | Posted by Jim Cook in Alternative Parties | Americans Elect | Election 2012 | Election 2016 | Politics - (0 Comments)

In February 2012, Republican state representative and Americans Elect chief legal counsel Dan Winslow said you know it’s time to reform the presidential election system when technical difficulties interfere with democratic process:

MT@politico: Maine GOP lost votes because emails went to spam folder.

Dan Winslow’s right that the Maine Republican Party experienced significant technical difficulties with its caucus, interfering with the vote. But the solution Winslow proposed to reform the presidential selection system — Americans Elect — suffered from just as many if not more technical errors, from granting special website features to some candidates but not others, to glitches that prevented significant proportions of interested Americans from having their voting status verified to inflated delegate counts to undisclosed forms. These technical errors, made on top of strategic and ethical errors, brought Americans Elect to a crashing halt in the month of May.

If we take the Dan Winslow of February seriously, then certainly the Dan Winslow of today can’t be an advocate for the return of an Americans Elect presidential selection system in 2016 — not without a top-down reform.

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Americans Elect Responds to Delegate Revolt with Rules violation and a Lawsuit Threat

June 2nd, 2012 | Posted by Jim Cook in Alternative Parties | Americans Elect | Election 2012 | Politics - (20 Comments)

On May 17, the 501c4 corporation Americans Elect announced that it would cancel its planned privatized presidential nomination. Why? Because too few registered voters showed an interest in participating in a system that gave ultimate candidate selection authority to a self-selected corporate board.

Two days later, on May 19, a grassroots-organized and inclusive new group called Americans of Americans Elect was trying to organize on the Internet. This new group petitioned Americans Elect to either re-open its presidential nomination process or, failing that, to let the delegates take over the organization and ready it for future elections:

Andrew Evans describes the Americans of Americans Elect effort on May 19 2012

Americans of Americans Elect formally submitted a petition on May 20 to reverse the decision of the Americans Elect board to shut down. This petition is in accordance with Rule 12.2, and requires a response by Americans Elect:

“any Delegate who wishes to reverse any decision of any Committee or Board may do so by sending a statement of 500 words or less by email to the Board within 72 hours after notice of any decision is posted on the Website. The Board shall then post the statement on the Website with instructions that any Delegate who agrees with reversal shall ‘Support Click’ the statement…. This process of Reversal Votes shall be the sole and exclusive remedy for any Delegate aggrieved by any action, conduct, or failure to act of Americans Elect.”

As you can see here, Americans Elect failed to follow its own rules. It neglected to post the group’s statement petitioning for reversal. It violated its own rules by failing to hold the required Reversal Vote. This is the latest in a long list of anti-democratic actions by Americans Elect.

What did Americans Elect do instead? After the delegate group voiced its interest in taking over the Americans Elect process and using it for grassroots democracy in future elections, Americans Elect sent a letter to the Florida Division of Elections, which you can search for here (see date 5/24/2012), or which you can read for yourself here. In this letter, Americans Elect notifies the Florida Division of Elections that it has a trademark for the name “Americans Elect” and threatens to sue any group attempting to use Americans Elect ballot lines in any movement for political office not authorized by the corporate board:

“any state-based chapter or committee must be authorized by the Americans Elect Board… any nominations for offices other than President and vice President would not be authorized or sanctioned by Americans Elect according to its Bylaws. Finally, please note that Americans Elect is the owner of a federal trademark for the AMERICANS ELECT mark. Any non-authorized use of the mark is likely to cause confusion, mistake or deception in violation of state and federal trademark law, including 15 U.S.C. 1125(a), entitling Americans Elect to immediate and permanent injuctive relief, an accounting of profits, and attorneys’ fees.”

To the last, Americans Elect is a corporate entity, using corporate privilege and corporate threats, determined to control the actions of the annoying little people who might have something else in mind.

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