From: hayesstw@telkomsa.net   
      
   Noam Chomsky about 2020: "Election tampering is a huge industry"   
   "Massive campaign funding in the last days can have a major effect, as   
   seems to have happened in 2016"   
      
      
   Alex Henderson   
   August 15, 2020 12:21PM (UTC)   
      
   This article originally appeared on AlterNet.   
      
   Although Noam Chomsky has often been highly critical of former Vice   
   President Joe Biden and other centrist Democrats, the 91-year-old   
   author is encouraging progressives to vote for him in this year's   
   presidential election — and to keep a close eye on Biden if he wins.   
   But he's also warning that President Donald Trump is still "quite   
   capable" of an "October surprise."   
      
   In an interview with writer C.J. Polychroniou for Truthout, Chomsky   
   stressed that despite all the polls showing Biden ahead, a Biden   
   victory is "anything but a sure thing."   
      
   Chomsky told Polychroniou, "Election tampering is a huge industry.   
   Massive campaign funding in the last days can have a major effect, as   
   seems to have happened in 2016. The leading specialist on campaign   
   funding, Tom Ferguson, found that a 'dual wave of money' for both   
   president and Senate had a substantial and probably decisive impact in   
   the final days of the '16 campaign."   
      
   Chomsky added, "We've already discussed the possibility that   
   Republican interference with mail balloting might muddy the waters.   
   Apart from all of these devices to undermine the limited integrity of   
   elections, Trump is quite capable of an 'October surprise.' It's not   
   hard to conjure up a variety of options. This is no time for letting   
   one's guard down, beguiled by dubious hopes."   
      
   Chomsky warned that "popular support for autocracy runs disturbingly   
   high" in the U.S., and he made his point by citing an Ipsos poll that   
   was released last week and addressed "Americans' views on the media."   
      
      
   Noting the poll's results, Chomsky told Polychroniou: "Few signs are   
   clearer than attitudes toward the media. Almost one-fourth of   
   Republicans agree that 'President Trump should close down mainstream   
   news outlets like CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times.'   
   Twice that number of Republicans, almost half, agree that 'the   
   president should have the authority to close news outlets engaged in   
   bad behavior' and that 'the news media is the enemy of the American   
   people,' engaged in bad behavior. Democrats are not that extreme, but   
   the numbers are not overly reassuring."   
      
   If Biden does win in November, Chomsky told The.Ink's Anand   
   Giridharadas, the last progressives should do is give him   
   unconditional support.   
      
   Giridharadas, during the interview, told Chomsky,: "Your support for   
   Biden is more than merely grudging. You actually seem to think that   
   the platform is surprisingly good given who he is and given where we   
   are."   
   Advertisement:   
      
   "This is not support for Biden," Chomsky said. "It is support for the   
   activists who have been at work constantly, creating the background   
   within the party in which the shifts took place, and who have followed   
   [Sen. Bernie] Sanders in actually entering the campaign and   
   influencing it. Support for them, support for real politics. The left   
   position is you rarely support anyone; you vote against the worst. You   
   keep the pressure and activism going."   
      
   Giridharadas asked Chomsky if someone as progressive as Democratic   
   Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of Sanders' most prominent allies,   
   "could ever become president in this country," he didn't rule out the   
   possibility.   
      
   "Well, if you'd asked me 10 years ago whether someone like Bernie   
   Sanders could be the most popular political figure in the country, I   
   would've said you're out of your mind," Chomsky told  Giridharadas.   
   "But it, in fact, happened in 2016, and it's continued to create a   
   significant movement. There are real possibilities. I think if you   
   take a look at the United States in the 1920s, and you asked, 'Could   
   there ever be a labor movement?' you would've sounded crazy. How could   
   there be? It had been crushed. But it changed. Human life is not   
   predictable."   
      
   Alex Henderson   
      
   MORE FROM Alex Henderson   
      
   --   
   Steve Hayes   
   http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm   
   http://khanya.wordpress.com   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)