Google News returns (as of October 18) 285,000 search results on the phrase “rigged election.” It’s a trending topic, run up the flagpole of public consciousness by media coverage of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s mouth. Sample, from an October 17 rally in Wisconsin:

“Remember, we are competing in a rigged election …. They even want to try and rig the election at the polling booths, where so many cities are corrupt and voter fraud is all too common.”

Three observations:

First, this kind of rhetoric is dangerous, and not just in a notional manner. More than one country has descended into riot, revolution, coup or civil war territory over disputes about the integrity of its elections. Think it can’t happen here? Think again.

Secondly, this kind of rhetoric isn’t new by any stretch of the imagination. In the United States, the claim has enjoyed growing persuasive power ever since 2000 when a Florida vote recount was halted by the US Supreme Court, thereby awarding the office of president to George W. Bush, who probably didn’t actually win the election. Many Democrats ascribed John Kerry’s 2004 defeat to voting machine manipulation in Ohio. In 2012, Republicans threw in with complaints over apparent voter intimidation at urban polling places in support of Barack Obama’s re-election.

Finally, Trump is not the only presidential candidate claiming that this presidential election is rigged. As far back as August, we have Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton saying things like this:

“I think laying out the facts raises serious issues about Russian interference in our elections, in our democracy …. For Trump to both encourage that and to praise Putin despite what appears to be a deliberate effort to try to affect the election I think raises national security issues.”

The Clinton version is a bit more subtle (and even less well-supported by anything resembling actual evidence) than Trump’s. It’s also at least as dangerous and possibly more so to the extent that it might serve as a casus belli for World War III.

Trump is preemptively positioning himself to claim that a victorious Clinton and her party rigged the election. That could lead to fireworks.

Clinton is preemptively positioning herself to accuse a foreign power of rigging — or at least unduly influencing — the outcome to her loss. That could lead to fireworks of a nuclear variety.

Third party and independent candidates have the strongest complaints of election-rigging — the Republicans and Democrats have colluded in suppressing all other parties for lo on 130 years now with restrictive ballot access laws and other dirty tricks. But those complaints aren’t quite the gasoline-soaked pile of tinder that happens when the two wings of the ruling oligarchy have this type of falling out.

We certainly live in interesting times.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY

• “‘Rigged Election’ Rhetoric: A Dangerous Two-Way Street,” by Thomas L. Knapp, OpEdNews, 10/18/16
• “‘Rigged Election’ Rhetoric: A Dangerous Two-Way Street,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Ventura County, California Citizens Journal, 10/18/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, USA Today, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Palm Springs/Coachella Valley, California Desert Sun, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Wilmington, Delaware News Journal, 10/20/16
• “Dangerous ‘rigged’ rhetoric,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Orangeburg, South Carolina Times & Democrat, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Oshkosh, Wisconsin Northwestern, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Indianapolis, Indiana Star, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Jackson, Mississippi Clarion-Ledger, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Florida Today, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Sioux Falls, South Dakota Argus Leader, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Livonia, Michigan Observer and Eccentric, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Arizona Republic, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Clarksville, Tennessee Leaf-Chronicle, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Rochester, New York Democrat & Chronicle, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Fort Collins, Colorado Coloradoan, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Lafayette, Louisiana Advertiser, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Naples, Florida Daily News, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Henderson, Kentucky Gleaner, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Orlando, Florida Central Florida Future, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Pensacola, Florida News Journal, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Ventura County, California Star, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Somerville, New Jersey Courier News, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Jackson, Tennessee Sun, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, El Paso, Texas Times, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Cincinnati, Ohio Enquirer, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Wisconsin State Farmer, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Waukesha Now [Wisconsin], 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Florida State University FSView & Florida Flambeau, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Detroit, Michigan Free Press, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Ithaca, New York Journal, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Pacific Daily News [Guam], 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Chambersburg, Pennsyvania Public Opinion, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Staunton, Virginia News Leader , 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, St. Cloud, Minnesota Times, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Great Falls, Montana Tribune, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Carlsbad, New Mexico Current-Argus, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, York Daily Record [Pennsylvania], 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Delaware Beaches, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Las Cruces, New Mexico Sun-News, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Hammonton, New Jersey News, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Ft. Myers, Florida News-Press, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Black Mountain, North Carolina News, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Muncie, Indiana Star Press, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric dangerous,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Greenville, South Carolina Upstate Parent, 10/20/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric is a dangerous two-way street,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Newberry, South Carolina Times, 10/31/16
• “‘Rigged election’ rhetoric: A dangerous two-way street,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Fayette, West Virginia Tribune, 10/24/16

It’s been nearly four years since Adam Lanza murdered his mother at the Newtown, Connecticut home they shared, then assaulted Sandy Hook Elementary School, killing 20 children, six staff members and, finally, himself.

Naturally the usual suspects — including but not limited to US president Barack Obama — immediately began rolling around in the victims’ still-wet blood and dancing on their graves, screeching for more of the very laws which had made Lanza’s atrocity possible in the first place (for example, the Gun Free School Zones Act, which virtually ensured that he enjoyed an extended timeframe in which to murder with impunity before facing an armed response).

The ghouls have marked time since the massacre with chest-beating ritual designed to keep the victims traumatized and periodically reopen their wounds. Newtown made a spectacle of acquiring Lanza’s home and demolishing it. The school district spent more than $50 million closing, demolishing, and rebuilding Sandy Hook Elementary.

And of course the victim disarmament lobby deployed one of the perennial favorites in its propaganda arsenal (pun intended): Malicious litigation in the form of “lawfare” (“the abuse of Western laws and judicial systems to achieve strategic military or political ends”).

Freedom won an important battle on the lawfare front on October 14, when Connecticut Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis dismissed a lawsuit filed in the names of 10 of the Sandy Hook victims’ families against Remington Arms, Camfour Holding LLC, and Riverview Sales — respectively the manufacturer, distributor and retail seller of the Bushmaster rifle Lanza used in his killing spree.

The dismissal was clearly mandated by a specific law, the “Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act,” passed by Congress in 2005 to protect gun manufacturers from litigation of this sort. But that law shouldn’t have even been necessary. Such litigation is meritless and frivolous on its face. The attorneys who drummed up the suit on behalf of (or to pitch to) the plaintiff families should be denied any monetary compensation from the families for their morally reprobate “work,” personally financially sanctioned by the court to recoup the costs of this farce  to the taxpayers,  and disciplined by their state bar association for ethics violations (e.g. barratry, “vexatious litigation or incitement to it”).

Remington Arms manufactured an indisputably legal item of a type available for general sale for more than a century. Camfour Holding LLC distributed that legal item to retailers. Riverview Sales legally sold that legal item Lanza’s mother.

The item was not defective, at least in any way which incited, encouraged, or brought about the killings. It was an inanimate object.

The cause of the killings — the ENTIRE cause of the killings — was Adam Lanza’s intent to kill, full stop. None of the defendants bears so much as an iota of responsibility for Lanza’s actions. But the ambulance-chasers who brought this suit bear full responsibility for THEIR actions. They should be made to feel that responsibility, preferably in the form of finding themselves destitute, unemployed, and unemployable (other than, perhaps, at a “would you like fries with that?” level).

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY

• “Sandy Hook Suit Victimized Families Yet Again For Political Gain,” by Thomas L. Knapp, OpEdNews, 10/15/16
• “Sandy Hook Suit Victimized Families Yet Again for Political Gain,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Ventura County, California Citizens Journal, 10/15/16
• “Sandy Hook suit victimized families yet again for political gain,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Pahrump Valley, Nevada Times, 10/21/16

US Secretary of State John Kerry opined (in an October 7 appearance with French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault) that Russian military actions in Syria “beg for an appropriate investigation of war crimes.” French President Francois Hollande echoed the sentiment.

Kerry might want to keep the fate of his German predecessor, Joachim von Ribbentrop, in mind when making such statements. Ribbentrop, Hitler’s Foreign Minister, was hanged after trial at Nuremberg.

Kerry complains that Russian forces — in Syria helping that country’s government put down a rebellion backed by the United States and al Qaeda (yes, that al  Qaeda) — are pursuing a “targeted strategy to terrorize civilians and to kill anybody and everybody who is in the way of their military objectives.” Maybe he’s right. I certainly harbor no love for Vladimir Putin or Bashar al-Assad.

But where, one might ask, has John Kerry been for the last 15 years as the US has pursued a “targeted strategy to terrorize civilians and to kill anybody and everybody who is in the way of their military objectives” in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Somalia at the cost of hundreds of thousands, possibly more than a million, civilian lives?

Why did Secretary Kerry’s conscience go untroubled by possible war crimes repercussions when US  forces killed at least 42 civilians in an AC-130U gunship attack on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan a year ago this month?

Where  has his deep concern over war crimes been during the decade-plus US terror campaign of drone assassinations across the Middle East, Africa and Asia? Jeremy Scahill, writing for The Intercept, reports that in a  two-month sampling of drone strikes in Afghanistan, nearly 90% of those killed were not the actual targets. For some reason, US drone killers seem particularly attracted to wedding parties and other noncombatant civilian activities.

Did the whole war crimes thing perhaps come into perspective for Mr. Kerry on October 12, when US Representative Ted Lieu (D-CA)  notified him in a letter that the US may be (read: is) culpable for its involvement in Saudi war crimes in Yemen (the US provides arms and aerial refueling support to the Saudi invaders)?

There seem to be plenty of potential war crimes investigations to go around, don’t there? Maybe enough to merit renting a hall in Nuremberg.

Fortunately for Russia, Syria and the US, those three regimes haven’t ratified the Rome Statute and placed themselves under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court for war crimes. The US also lucks out with Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Somalia, none of which are party to the ICC treaty either.

Afghanistan, however, is a Rome Statute party. War crimes there come under ICC jurisdiction, regardless of who commits them. Perhaps an investigation of the Kunduz attack will fulfill Kerry’s desire to see war crimes punished.

And perhaps pigs will fly. Every nation’s ruling class considers itself exceptional and proves it by sheltering its own war criminals from justice whenever possible. Here’s hoping they all end up like Ribbentrop.

Thomas L. Knapp (Twitter: @thomaslknapp) is director and senior news analyst at the William Lloyd Garrison Center for Libertarian Advocacy Journalism (thegarrisoncenter.org). He lives and works in north central Florida.

PUBLICATION/CITATION HISTORY

• “War Crimes: John Kerry’s Really Got Some Kind of Nerve,” by Thomas L. Knapp, OpEdNews, 10/13/16
• “War Crimes: John Kerry’s Really Got Some Kind of Nerve,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Key West: The Newspaper [Florida], 10/14/16
• “War Crimes: John Kerry’s Really Got Some Kind of Nerve,” by Thomas L. Knapp, CounterPunch, 10/14/16
• “War Crimes: John Kerry’s Really Got Some Kind of Nerve,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Ventura County, California Citizens Journal, 10/14/16
• “War Crimes: John Kerry’s Really Got Some Kind of Nerve,” by Thomas L. Knapp, Uinta County, Wyoming Herald [print edition only], 10/14/16
• “War crimes? John Kerry’s really got some kind of nerve,” by Thomas L. Knapp, New Haven, Connecticut Register, 10/17/16