Rage Against the Machine

We have a clue this morning about who was behind all the controversy. They advertise it. But it had to go to “research” mode this morning since some of us were unconscious during the period described.

It was an opportunity to try to link a couple parallel stories, one of which involved the University of Michigan, the LawFare offensive against some of our society, elections and machines, and the general one of those that is coming to us all in nine months. Using machines, since only a few jurisdictions that have them as part of their electoral tabulations apparently have some weaknesses.

OK, first the University part. There is ‘news’ from one of the four (or five) court proceedings In progress about potential candidates in a former election and the validity of accounting systems used to tabulate the vote. For the trial down in Georgia- and honestly, we can no longer tell some of these trial apart since they each have their own scandals contained. In the one in progress down in Georgia trial, Professor J. Alex Halderman, a digital expert from Ann Arbor demonstrated that Dominion Voting Systems machines were alarmingly susceptible to hacking. We have not been following in any specific detail since there were, at last count, 91-assorted charges spread across four or five courts.

There is more coverage at Law360 Pulse, but in short, Professor Halderman demonstrated that he could use a Bic pen and a smart card to easily copy, edit, and change votes on the machines within seconds. We knew there was something strange about the election while the ballots were still being counted. We make no specific claims about anything, but have been uneasy since election night when six swing states quit counting ballots simultaneously, expelled monitors, put cardboard over the windows looking into the counting center and then went back to counting.

That was enough for some of us then. It was not to jump up and yell “Nothing like this has occurred in the more than two hundred years we have been having elections! But it is the cleanest ever!”

The testimony of the semi-truck driver whose truck brought in a full load of never-before-folded mail-in ballots was another one just in the day or two, and stories about one of the three-letter agencies that participated in altering other elections only in other nations.

And then there was Antrim County back in Michigan. Antrim is in the “Way Up North” category of Michigan jurisdictions without actually ross the Straits of Macinaw. As a general rule, the residents up there tend to vote a hue not blue, so it was startling to see 5,000 votes for one candidate transfer suddenly to the other candidate. There are only about 8,500 registered voters up there, so the transfer was noticed and corrected. It was attributed to a routine error and the guy from Ann Arbor just demonstrated it could be done with a don’t Flick the Bic moment.

There are tens of millions at stake to the company in terms of liabiity claims. We make none of them, except to note that we saw some activity previously restricted to individual big cities like the one’s in Chicago and Texas that contributed to LBJ’s victory way back when. We had never seen them coordinated between big cities, so you can understand our mild unease. Not that we would question the results of a certified election, the cleanest one ever.

It was not anger, since we are compliant with all instructions we are aware of and accuse no one of anything untoward. But the news from Antrim suggests there could be an issue with several aspects It is a bi-partisan concern, since the Coalition for Good Governance originally filed the suit as a liberal activist group. They asserted the state’s use of touch-screen computers for voting, without a verifiable print ballot, made the voting counts vulnerable to manipulation. They apparently drew the line at Bic pens.

We don’t make any claims, cast any aspersions or attempt specific defamation, but we have found the only people angry at the process who advertise it. They are a band called “Rage Against the Machine.” Their title is often abbreviated as RATM or shortened to just Rage. Thet were from LA and burst on the scene in 1991 with their tuneful campaign. The band was known for melding heavy metal and Fap with a trace of P & F- “Punk” and ‘Funk.”

The act professed some radical views- no news there- but when they broke up in 2010 they had sold over 16 million records worldwide. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023. We no longer wonder about the time lag between their active time on stage and formal recognition. They must have been up to something, you know?

We accuse them of nothing in specific terms, and that includes vocalist Zack de la Rocha, bassist Tim Commerford, guitalist Tom Morello and mad drummer Brad Wilk. You can see them at the front end of this disclosure. Below you can see some of the inspirations they saw and were a quarter century ago.

And what did they do then? We don’t know and don’t accuse. Maybe they went on to break some machines? They are certainly not the only ones angry.

Los Angeles – Wikipedia

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – Wikipedia

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), also simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame l…

Tom Morello – Wikipedia

Thomas Baptist Morello (born May 30, 1964) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and political activist….

Rock music – Wikipedia

Rock is a broad genre of popular music that originated as “rock and roll” in the United States in the late 1940s…

Political views and activism of Rage Against the Machine – Wikipedia

The political views and activism of Rage Against the Machine (RATM) are central in the band’s music and public i…

Punk rock – Wikipedia

Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and r…

Brad Wilk – Wikipedia

Zack de la Rocha – Wikipedia

Zacharias Manuel de la Rocha[1] (born January 12, 1970) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, rapper, and…

Rap metal – Wikipedia

Rap metal is a fusion genre which combines hip hop with heavy metal. It usually consists of heavy metal guitar r…

Funk – Wikipedia

Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a …

Tim Commerford – Wikipedia

Timothy Commerford[2] (born February 26, 1968) is an American musician, best known as the bassist and backing vo…

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