Today, the #Wisconsin Supreme Court may choose our president. That is, justices will hear arguments in a lawsuit that would force the state to remove 129,000 people from the voter rolls madison.com/opinion/column…
The #Wisconsin hit list is not only disastrously wrong, it is suspiciously over-weighted with African-Americans. Look at the maps. They reveal a near-perfect match between the percentage of Black voters in a Census tract and the number of voters wrongly tagged as having moved.
Rick Esenberg brought this lawsuit on behalf of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL). When I spoke to him, Esenberg admitted he had not checked his voter purge list for accuracy and claims he has no idea that the list is overloaded with Black and low-income voters.
WILL is backed by the right-wing Wisconsin billionaire Bradley family foundation. That does not surprise Elections Commissioner Ann Jacobs who is blunt about their aim. “I think it’s crystal clear the intent of this suit."
Whatever the intent, how could Esenberg’s group get it so wrong? It begins with a misuse of what is called the “ERIC” list... gregpalast.com/wisconsin-move…
ERIC uses a limited and amateurish system for identifying those who have moved from their registration address. But that’s not a problem, as ERIC was not established to hunt voters for the purge but to find those who moved into a state or town and invite them to register.
ERIC often confuses common names like James Brown. But if the wrong James Brown gets a postcard inviting him to register, no harm done. But the WI Legislature and then-Gov. Scott Walker added a stinger: If a voter does not return a postcard, they must be removed from the rolls.
The card looks like junk mail—so less than 2% returned it. Mark Swedlund, an expert in mailings, notes from Census studies that minority, young and urban residents don’t always receive mass mailings and respond at only a fraction of the rate of white, older, suburban homeowners.
Adding to bias against low-income & young voters, the “junk mail” cards were sent to voters who moved within the cities of Milwaukee and Madison even though both federal and state law prohibits cancelling registrations of those who move within their city. gregpalast.com/wisconsin-move…
“There is a small right-wing group which wants to undermine Black voters and young voters. They are desperate because they are losing power — so they are resorting to cheating and undermining the election by any means.” — @MsLaToshaBrown & @cliff_notes of @BlackVotersMtr
Palast Investigative Fund attorney Jeanne Mirer has submitted a copy of our findings to the Wisconsin Attorney General and the Wisconsin Board of Elections. gregpalast.com/report-wiscons…
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
#Ukraine: It’s not aid, it’s our obligation under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum #UkraineNeedsAirDefense | #ArmUkraineNow
Under the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine gave up their nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia. So, we had an obligation to defend Ukraine if they were ever invaded. hartmannreport.com/p/the-failure-…
And when we say aid to Ukraine, understand almost all the money that we “give" to Ukraine is used to buy American weapons, and supplies, and goods. It doesn't go anywhere. It's just money for them to purchase stuff mostly from us. apnews.com/article/biden-…
In 1996, I filmed an investigation that never saw the light of day. It was about the richest guys you’d never heard of, Charles and David Koch — and their theft of a mind-blowing $2 billion in oil from Osage tribal land. Now, I’m blowing open the files in a new film... 🧵
It’s said that behind every great fortune is a great crime. This is the crime, the genesis of the Kochs’ $120 billion empire — and the foundation of the fearsome Koch Network, that political Death Star, created solely to keep Charles Koch out of prison. gregpalast.com/what-charles-k…
Killers of the Flower Moon tells the story of the murder of scores of Osage for their oil. It ends in the 1920s, but as Chief Standing Bear says, “It’s still going on”. He wants us to know the rest of the story, especially the Osage's battle with Koch Oil gregpalast.com/americas-osage…
This week, Scorsese releases his film Killers of the Flower Moon: the true story of the mass murder of the Osage and the theft of their oil wealth. But the story doesn’t end when the credits roll. For 27 years, I've been investigating what happened next... 🧵
Over the past century, the #Osage Nation has continued to suffer massive oil thievery, poisoning, and impoverishment on their Oklahoma reservation.
“It’s not over,” Osage principal chief, Geoffrey Standing Bear, tells me. “It’s still happening.” gregpalast.com/americas-osage…
At the heart of it is legal control of Osage native land by the US Bureau of Indian Affairs, an entity the Osage call the Ma-he-tah, or the Long Knife. Standing Bear, a lawyer himself, likens the arrangement to a military occupation.
In the 1920s, after discovery of the massive oil field on the #Osage Reservation, the US government took away the Osage’s right to their wealth, instead appointing a white Guardian for each Osage to “protect” their money. gregpalast.com/until-they-kil…
Here’s how their guardians protected them: Anna Brown was shot in the head, her mother Lizzie poisoned, and her sister Rita was burnt to death when her home was dynamited.
Sixty—and likely many more—Osage were assassinated.
Their murderers inherited their oil rights.
That story, of the murder-for-oil Reign of Terror, is movingly portrayed in the film, #KillersOfTheFlowerMoon, starring @LeoDiCaprio, to be released next month.
On June 25th, 2013 the US Supreme Court gutted the #VotingRightsAct, when they ruled 5 to 4 that Section 4 was unconstitutional. The case, Shelby v. Holder, was financed in part by multi-billionaire hedge fund manager Paul “The Vulture” Singer.
Earlier this week, @ProPublica revealed that #PaulSinger flew #JusticeAlito on his private jet to Alaska for a luxury fishing vacation in early 2008 (a gift which Alito failed to disclose). propublica.org/article/samuel…
@propublica #PaulSinger subsequently had multiple cases before Alito and the Supreme Court — including a 15-year long dispute with the nation of Argentina. #SCOTUS #JusticeAlito gregpalast.com/paul-singer-th…
Yesterday @ProPublica revealed that #PaulSinger flew #JusticeAlito on a private jet to Alaska for a luxury (undisclosed) fishing vacation. Singer subsequently had multiple cases before SCOTUS — including his vulture attack on Argentina, which forced the nation into default.
I’ve been hunting #PaulSinger The Vulture for BBC TV since 2007, when he pocketed the money meant to aid those affected by the cholera epidemic in the Republic of Congo.
My 2012 cover story for @TheNation, “Mitt Romney’s Bailout Bonanza”, revealed how #PaulSinger secretly set up Romney to make $100 million off Obama’s auto bailout. https://t.co/yvbHSVfclNthenation.com/article/archiv…