Brexit and Individual 1. Two failures the world seems stuck with.

[NRaleighLiberal]

Both aided by Russian interference (perhaps worse) - both supported by older, less educated people. Both possible only by cheating.

What is amazing is how awful both are, yet how "stuck" we seem to currently be with this pair of abject failures.

[unc70]

1. UK has easier way out than we do

They could revoke and reject BREXIT outright. Short term disruption, but pre BREXIT status restored.

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. indeed - seems like a no brainer, but not yet a given.

[ucrdem]

3. "perhaps worse" -- how about Facebook?

Could either of them have gotten off the ground without complicit social media platforms?

[NRaleighLiberal]

4. exactly. As far as our failed election, I believe it was hacked/stolen.

[ucrdem]

8. Yes, completely agree.

Transmitting vote totals over the internet, what could go wrong? And in Trump's case that was just to get to where it could be legally swiped by the Electoral College.

[triron]

9. I think it was more deleting certain populations from the voter registration rolls.

[ucrdem]

10. Yes, that was part of the strategy, for sure.

My strong impression at the time was that Trump's gang of thieves used top-grade AI to figure out exactly how many votes they needed to steal how from where to cheat him into office. So yeah the accidentally-on-purpose deleted registrations, the lines, the early voting ballots at the bottom of Lake Michigan and elsewhere were all part of the calculation. I suspect a similar strategy was used to push through Brexit.

I remember Trump saying once that he could have gotten a majority if he'd needed one. Meaning, he'd only paid enough to get the office, not for a decent appearance of winning.

[former9thward]

5. What was the cheating in the Brexit vote?

I have never seen that allegation.

[NRaleighLiberal]

6. the blatant cheating is our issue - the russian fb trolling was the brexit issue -

which to me, that sort of use of social network is a form of cheating.

[ucrdem]

7. This turned up in a search:

"It’s Official: The Brexit Campaign Cheated Its Way to Victory"
Jamie Ross 07.17.18

The group—known as Vote Leave—was chosen as the official campaign group for the June 2016 referendum. The Electoral Commission says it funneled money into a sister campaign to get around spending limits, meaning that it exceeded the £7 million ($9.2 million) maximum by £500,000 ($660,000)

Vote Leave has been fined £61,000 ($80,000) while Darren Grimes, the founder of sister campaign group BeLeave, was fined £20,000 ($26,000). Grimes and Vote Leave official David Halsall have both been reported to police.

The investigation from the Electoral Commission found that BeLeave spent more than £675,000 with controversial data firm Aggregate IQ under a common plan with Vote Leave—spending that should have been declared by Vote Leave, but was left out of its spending returns.

Aggregate IQ, which received about £2.7 million from Vote Leave during the campaign, has since been suspended from Facebook over its reported links with defunct data firm Cambridge Analytica.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/its-official-the-brexit-campaign-cheated-its-way-to-victory

[OnDoutside]

11. Not in the actual voting, but in all the bits before it.

Firstly, there should be a Mueller style investigation into what happened but the Tory government have been blocking it.

Secondly, all the lies the Leave campaign told to voters eg "We'll have an extra £350m a week to spend on healthcare - as soon as the vote was over they said well that's not really true"

Thirdly, Cambridge Analytica that were subsequently involved in the US Presidential Election, were first involved in the Brexit campaign

Fourthly, funding. Arron Banks inquiry: why is £8m Leave.EU funding under review?

The National Crime Agency is to investigate claims of criminal offences during the EU referendum by Arron Banks and his unofficial leave campaign. What could this development mean for Brexit?

What do we know so far?
Following a referral by the Election Commission, the NCA is to look into allegations that Banks was not, as he said, the source of £8m in funding given to the Leave.EU campaign.

It centres on claims that some of the money came via a company based in the Isle of Man and that Banks and his associates sought to cover this up. The Isle of Man is not part of the UK and so under election law could not be used as a source of funds during the referendum.

Those being investigated are Banks; Elizabeth Bilney, a long-time Banks associate who chaired the campaign; Leave.EU itself; Better for the Country, the company used to finance it; and “other associated companies and individuals”.

Banks and Bilney have vehemently rejected any wrongdoing, and said the investigation is motivated by political bias.

Is Russia connected to any of this?

There have been a series of reports, led by the Observer’s Carol Cadwalladr, about links between Banks and his campaign to Russia, prompting speculation about this being the source of some of the funding. However, neither the Electoral Commission nor the NCA have mentioned it as part of the inquiry.

Bilney also rejected the idea, telling the BBC: “I can confirm it wouldn’t have come from Russia … I run the group of companies where the money was from and we don’t have any transactions that are from Russia.”

More at

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/nov/02/arron-banks-inquiry-why-is-8m-leaveeu-funding-under-review