Note: I want you to see Mark Andrews, supposed Black “criminal” supposedly caught in the act of VWB, Voting While Black. Next Thursday, February 5, at 6:30pm Central time (4:30pm Pacific), chapters of Indivisible will host a special online showing of my film, Vigilantes Inc., America’s New Vote Suppression Hitmen, which rips Trump’s True the Vote a new one. If you’re in the Chicago area, you can attend the live showing with Q&A to follow.
The real story of the FBI raid on Fulton County, Atlanta
You are watching the theft of 2026 before your eyes
by Greg Palast for The Hartmann Report and RawStory | January 29, 2026
For god’s sake, let’s get to the REAL agenda behind Wednesday’s-FBI raid on the Fulton County elections office. IT’S NOT ABOUT THE 2020 ELECTION. The warrant says the FBI wants the envelopes from the 2020 election to hunt for crimes. But that’s just the legal excuse for the storm trooping.
This is NOT, as the media seems to think, about Trump’s attempt to prove he won the 2020 race, as if he’s some political Captain Ahab was trying to chase the Moby Dick of 2020 revenge.
This is all about 2026 and 2028. Look at a map. Fulton County is the heart of “Blacklanta.” And Atlanta is the electoral heart of Georgia. And Georgia is the swingiest of swing states. If Republicans don’t cut down the Black vote in Atlanta, they lose the crucial seat now held by Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff. And in 2028, the GOP, if they don’t suppress the vote in Fulton, they lose the White House. Fulton was the fulcrum of Trump’s loss in 2020 and could spell doomsday for Republicans in 2028.
So, how exactly do you stop Fulton County Black folk (and the LGBTQ community and the hipsters who left rural Georgia because they hate their parents) from voting? The answer is in one word: DROP-BOX.
Surveillance footage of a drop box in Atlanta, used in the film 2000 Mules as evidence of a “mule” whom filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza claimed was paid to stuff this and 26 other ballot boxes. According to D’Souza, this was “the smoking gun! O.J. Simpson…leaving the scene of a crime!” But it doesn’t show anything more than a Black man voting.
Follow me on this.
First, let me explain to my White readers a fact about African-Americans: In the majority, they vote early, having suffered the cruel absurdity of six-hour lines on Election Day. (And remember, it’s a FELONY crime in Georgia to give an elderly voter standing in line, thirsty a bottle of water). From long, sad experience, Black voters have learned to use early voting opportunities, especially mail-in ballots that can be placed in a drop-box.
For example, in the election run-off following the 2020 vote, which put two Georgia Democrats into the US Senate, over a million mail-in ballots (1,084,021) were cast, mainly in drop-boxes, mostly in Fulton/Atlanta.
Republicans took note. So, in a bill signed by GOP Governor Brian Kemp, the infamous SB202, the state declared all-out war on early voting, especially early votes placed in secure drop-boxes.
First, the state slashed the number of drop-boxes allowed in Atlanta and Savannah the two big cities with the urban Black population, by 77%.
Early voting days, when you can use the drop box, were cut from 60 to just seven (!). And drop boxes — meant to serve voters who can only vote when they get off work at night — were sealed up at night in state office buildings.
The result, not reported by a single US outlet (except, God bless him, Thom Hartmann) was that the number of mail-in ballots cast dropped by 83% — 83%! — from over a million to 0.2 million (191,286) by the run-off of 2022.
Why? It goes back to what Donald Trump calls, correctly, one of the most influential documentaries of all time: 2000 Mules. The film, premiered by Trump at Mar-a-Lago, accused 2000 Black men of taking $10 from George Soros, Mark Zuckerberg and Stacey Abrams to stuff drop-boxes with tens of thousands of fraudulent ballots, especially in Fulton County. It was the perfect Sturm for the right, a stimulating concoction of racism and anti-Semitism.
There wasn’t a bit of evidence, of course, but it looked convincing to MAGA-nauts. Every single drop-box in Georgia has a video camera over it to prevent fraud, and the videos are public. So, the Trump front called True the Vote, showed videos of Black men “stuffing” the drop boxes with extra ballots.
Except it wasn’t true. The “star” criminal was a Black man accused of “running from the scene of crime like OJ Simpson.” In fact, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is Republican controlled, ran all over the state to arrest each Black alleged ballot stuffer (a felony crime) — but found that every one, EVERY ONE, was a legal voter. The man accused of thievery was Mark Andrews, who is a Verizon executive who legally dropped his family’s ballots in the drop box. But, as LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter says, “He was seen guilty of a crime because he was Black.” That, literally, was the only “evidence” of the crime.
Note: I want you to see Mark Andrews, supposed Black “criminal” supposedly caught in the act of VWB, Voting While Black. Next Thursday, February 5, at 6:30pm Central time (4:30pm Pacific), chapters of Indivisible will host a special online showing of my film, Vigilantes Inc., America’s New Vote Suppression Hitmen, which rips Trump’s True the Vote a new one. If you’re in the Chicago area, you can attend the live showing with Q&A to follow.
Early voting, mail-in voting and casting an early vote in a drop were the keys to Joe Biden’s victory in 2020, key to a huge surge in minority and student votes nationwide.
And massive suppression of early, mail-in and drop-box votes were key to Trump’s triumphant return. (Did anyone note that, seen from the Oval, the demolition of the East Wing only leaves the Right Wing.)
Following the 2020 election, over 20 Red States passed laws eliminating or restricting drop-boxes. And in every single case, legislators cited the bullshit “evidence” of 2000 Mules. Fact check: The state of Georgia recounted and reviewed every single Fulton County drop-box and mail in ballot and didn’t find one single forged ballot. Every vote had an identified, verified vote. Not ONE ballot.
White Democrats don’t seem to understand how important early drop-off votes mean to Black and student communities. But the Republicans understand it completely. In fact, GOP Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said that, had he not gone to court and stopped Houston from mailing out absentee ballots to all voter, “Donald Trump would have lost Texas.” Texas! (Note: Houston has the largest number of Black voters of any city in America.
By seeking every envelope from drop-box and absentee voters, Attorney General Pam Blondi is saving her job by saving the GOP from the voters’ wrath. The game is to force a state (i.e. Republican) takeover of Fulton County voting (possible under SB 202). And you can’t separate the invasion of Atlanta voting offices from the Purge’n General Blondi’s demand that Minnesota hand over its voter rolls.
The underlying purpose of Blondi’s seizure of Minnesota’s voter files is the restoration of two other racially poisonous vote suppression tricks. One is the return of the “Interstate Crosscheck” purge program and its sister, the purge of “aliens” from the rolls. Interstate Crosscheck cost nearly one million voters their registrations in 2016, key to Trump’s first election. Crosscheck was ruled illegal through a grassroots campaign led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sen. Bernie Sanders and litigation brought by PUSH, the NAACP and the ACLU based, I’m proud to say, on the evidence presented to the courts by the Palast Investigative Fund. But. now, Crosscheck is BAAAACK! Want to know about Crosscheck. Read my investigation for Rolling Stone.
And there’s the canard of allegedly MILLIONS of alien voters swimming the Rio Grande just to vote for Democrats. When Florida used the ICE lists to purge 187,000 (!) voters from the rolls, mostly Hispanics, it turns out only ONE was an illegal alien: A Republican from Austria.
But that’s a story for another day — and for our film, Vigilantes Inc. Grab some popcorn and save America.
But that’s a story for another day — and for our film, Vigilantes Inc. Grab some popcorn and save America.
Greg Palast’s film Vigilantes Inc., was produced by Martin Sheen and Maria Florio (Oscar, Best Documentary) and narrated by Rosario Dawson.
Thank you so much for this incredibly helpful analysis...I was wondering this morning what on earth is the Georgia ballot raid about but now I understand...And yes, the most dangerous time, the most dangerous moment has come...I confess I feel really afraid, but perhaps it is due to my history of being an infant and fleeing with my mother from my very abusive father. However, we survived and in fact did quite well in our lives, all things considered. So I will attempt to focus on that...Thank you again for your insight and your committment to all of us...
Back in 2021/22 Trump did a rally where he floated the idea he should get a free extra term in office, based on the Big Lie.
Worth listening to “History’s most dangerous conspiracy theory” podcast (with Alexander Clifford) to see how the “stab in the back myth” got started and fuelled, by the super-losers Ludendorff and Hindenburg.
Scientology… I read once that Tom Cruise was a member. Dunno if true. Adepts must give this cult a lot of money. In France it is officially a sect. But there is no ending soon in view.
I can imagine if Omar's syringe-wielding assailant had attacked an ICE goon. The charge(s) would be felonious. On an unrelated note: I am appalled - APPALLED. - at the invasion of the Equadorian consulate. This type of atrocity ruins our reputation internationally, and takes a lifetime to live down. If America were as great as it was in 1812. - the last time the White House was defiled. - Trump would be in debtor’s prison. In that sense: MAGA.
Trump could not be more detrimental to America, its institutions, its allegiances… its history if HE TRIED. Which, in light of his bromance with Putin makes me wonder “Is he TRYING to sabotage the republic?” The book “Kompromat” by Craig Unger, makes just such an argument, featuring a decades long recruitment of, ahem, POTUS, by Soviet operative Yuri Schvets. The book is worth a glance. I found a copy at my local library.
Wow. An instant classic and the anthem of our era. So glad this song that will stand the test of time honors Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by name.
Interesting accusation from trump that Omar staged an attack on herself.
You know, with trump’s narcissism, every accusation is a confession, right?
This should remove any remaining doubt that Butler was a staged assassination attempt. At least I hope everyone understands that now.
From Greg Palast:
Note: I want you to see Mark Andrews, supposed Black “criminal” supposedly caught in the act of VWB, Voting While Black. Next Thursday, February 5, at 6:30pm Central time (4:30pm Pacific), chapters of Indivisible will host a special online showing of my film, Vigilantes Inc., America’s New Vote Suppression Hitmen, which rips Trump’s True the Vote a new one. If you’re in the Chicago area, you can attend the live showing with Q&A to follow.
This is from investigative reporter Greg Palast:
The real story of the FBI raid on Fulton County, Atlanta
You are watching the theft of 2026 before your eyes
by Greg Palast for The Hartmann Report and RawStory | January 29, 2026
For god’s sake, let’s get to the REAL agenda behind Wednesday’s-FBI raid on the Fulton County elections office. IT’S NOT ABOUT THE 2020 ELECTION. The warrant says the FBI wants the envelopes from the 2020 election to hunt for crimes. But that’s just the legal excuse for the storm trooping.
This is NOT, as the media seems to think, about Trump’s attempt to prove he won the 2020 race, as if he’s some political Captain Ahab was trying to chase the Moby Dick of 2020 revenge.
This is all about 2026 and 2028. Look at a map. Fulton County is the heart of “Blacklanta.” And Atlanta is the electoral heart of Georgia. And Georgia is the swingiest of swing states. If Republicans don’t cut down the Black vote in Atlanta, they lose the crucial seat now held by Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff. And in 2028, the GOP, if they don’t suppress the vote in Fulton, they lose the White House. Fulton was the fulcrum of Trump’s loss in 2020 and could spell doomsday for Republicans in 2028.
So, how exactly do you stop Fulton County Black folk (and the LGBTQ community and the hipsters who left rural Georgia because they hate their parents) from voting? The answer is in one word: DROP-BOX.
Surveillance footage of a drop box in Atlanta, used in the film 2000 Mules as evidence of a “mule” whom filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza claimed was paid to stuff this and 26 other ballot boxes. According to D’Souza, this was “the smoking gun! O.J. Simpson…leaving the scene of a crime!” But it doesn’t show anything more than a Black man voting.
Follow me on this.
First, let me explain to my White readers a fact about African-Americans: In the majority, they vote early, having suffered the cruel absurdity of six-hour lines on Election Day. (And remember, it’s a FELONY crime in Georgia to give an elderly voter standing in line, thirsty a bottle of water). From long, sad experience, Black voters have learned to use early voting opportunities, especially mail-in ballots that can be placed in a drop-box.
For example, in the election run-off following the 2020 vote, which put two Georgia Democrats into the US Senate, over a million mail-in ballots (1,084,021) were cast, mainly in drop-boxes, mostly in Fulton/Atlanta.
Republicans took note. So, in a bill signed by GOP Governor Brian Kemp, the infamous SB202, the state declared all-out war on early voting, especially early votes placed in secure drop-boxes.
First, the state slashed the number of drop-boxes allowed in Atlanta and Savannah the two big cities with the urban Black population, by 77%.
Early voting days, when you can use the drop box, were cut from 60 to just seven (!). And drop boxes — meant to serve voters who can only vote when they get off work at night — were sealed up at night in state office buildings.
The result, not reported by a single US outlet (except, God bless him, Thom Hartmann) was that the number of mail-in ballots cast dropped by 83% — 83%! — from over a million to 0.2 million (191,286) by the run-off of 2022.
Why? It goes back to what Donald Trump calls, correctly, one of the most influential documentaries of all time: 2000 Mules. The film, premiered by Trump at Mar-a-Lago, accused 2000 Black men of taking $10 from George Soros, Mark Zuckerberg and Stacey Abrams to stuff drop-boxes with tens of thousands of fraudulent ballots, especially in Fulton County. It was the perfect Sturm for the right, a stimulating concoction of racism and anti-Semitism.
There wasn’t a bit of evidence, of course, but it looked convincing to MAGA-nauts. Every single drop-box in Georgia has a video camera over it to prevent fraud, and the videos are public. So, the Trump front called True the Vote, showed videos of Black men “stuffing” the drop boxes with extra ballots.
Except it wasn’t true. The “star” criminal was a Black man accused of “running from the scene of crime like OJ Simpson.” In fact, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is Republican controlled, ran all over the state to arrest each Black alleged ballot stuffer (a felony crime) — but found that every one, EVERY ONE, was a legal voter. The man accused of thievery was Mark Andrews, who is a Verizon executive who legally dropped his family’s ballots in the drop box. But, as LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter says, “He was seen guilty of a crime because he was Black.” That, literally, was the only “evidence” of the crime.
Note: I want you to see Mark Andrews, supposed Black “criminal” supposedly caught in the act of VWB, Voting While Black. Next Thursday, February 5, at 6:30pm Central time (4:30pm Pacific), chapters of Indivisible will host a special online showing of my film, Vigilantes Inc., America’s New Vote Suppression Hitmen, which rips Trump’s True the Vote a new one. If you’re in the Chicago area, you can attend the live showing with Q&A to follow.
Early voting, mail-in voting and casting an early vote in a drop were the keys to Joe Biden’s victory in 2020, key to a huge surge in minority and student votes nationwide.
And massive suppression of early, mail-in and drop-box votes were key to Trump’s triumphant return. (Did anyone note that, seen from the Oval, the demolition of the East Wing only leaves the Right Wing.)
Following the 2020 election, over 20 Red States passed laws eliminating or restricting drop-boxes. And in every single case, legislators cited the bullshit “evidence” of 2000 Mules. Fact check: The state of Georgia recounted and reviewed every single Fulton County drop-box and mail in ballot and didn’t find one single forged ballot. Every vote had an identified, verified vote. Not ONE ballot.
White Democrats don’t seem to understand how important early drop-off votes mean to Black and student communities. But the Republicans understand it completely. In fact, GOP Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said that, had he not gone to court and stopped Houston from mailing out absentee ballots to all voter, “Donald Trump would have lost Texas.” Texas! (Note: Houston has the largest number of Black voters of any city in America.
By seeking every envelope from drop-box and absentee voters, Attorney General Pam Blondi is saving her job by saving the GOP from the voters’ wrath. The game is to force a state (i.e. Republican) takeover of Fulton County voting (possible under SB 202). And you can’t separate the invasion of Atlanta voting offices from the Purge’n General Blondi’s demand that Minnesota hand over its voter rolls.
The underlying purpose of Blondi’s seizure of Minnesota’s voter files is the restoration of two other racially poisonous vote suppression tricks. One is the return of the “Interstate Crosscheck” purge program and its sister, the purge of “aliens” from the rolls. Interstate Crosscheck cost nearly one million voters their registrations in 2016, key to Trump’s first election. Crosscheck was ruled illegal through a grassroots campaign led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sen. Bernie Sanders and litigation brought by PUSH, the NAACP and the ACLU based, I’m proud to say, on the evidence presented to the courts by the Palast Investigative Fund. But. now, Crosscheck is BAAAACK! Want to know about Crosscheck. Read my investigation for Rolling Stone.
And there’s the canard of allegedly MILLIONS of alien voters swimming the Rio Grande just to vote for Democrats. When Florida used the ICE lists to purge 187,000 (!) voters from the rolls, mostly Hispanics, it turns out only ONE was an illegal alien: A Republican from Austria.
But that’s a story for another day — and for our film, Vigilantes Inc. Grab some popcorn and save America.
But that’s a story for another day — and for our film, Vigilantes Inc. Grab some popcorn and save America.
Greg Palast’s film Vigilantes Inc., was produced by Martin Sheen and Maria Florio (Oscar, Best Documentary) and narrated by Rosario Dawson.
🥹🫶🏼
Thank you so much for this incredibly helpful analysis...I was wondering this morning what on earth is the Georgia ballot raid about but now I understand...And yes, the most dangerous time, the most dangerous moment has come...I confess I feel really afraid, but perhaps it is due to my history of being an infant and fleeing with my mother from my very abusive father. However, we survived and in fact did quite well in our lives, all things considered. So I will attempt to focus on that...Thank you again for your insight and your committment to all of us...
Back in 2021/22 Trump did a rally where he floated the idea he should get a free extra term in office, based on the Big Lie.
Worth listening to “History’s most dangerous conspiracy theory” podcast (with Alexander Clifford) to see how the “stab in the back myth” got started and fuelled, by the super-losers Ludendorff and Hindenburg.
Great piece. Springsteen is really coming through here. Kudos to the Dropkick Murphy’s and Jesse Welles for being out ahead on this too.
Jesse Welles: “Join ICE” (late show)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=61I4hlig78w&list=RD61I4hlig78w&start_radio=1&pp=oAcB
Jesse Welles: “Good vs. ICE”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=El0CLduLgew
Jesse Welles: “The Great Caucasian God”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RJiwovX3mNA&list=RDRJiwovX3mNA&start_radio=1&pp=oAcB
Jesse Welles: “The List”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KYbb_e6NHWU
You know, I sent an email to Lin Manuel (Hamilton) asking for a song. Never heard back. At least Springsteen came through.
Another classic from 1941:
https://youtu.be/XDkhzVw0yBs?si=5MlI_APkaRpLhL3o
The comments are worth reading! :)
How is this one?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PUOhAJG5EU
How do you think JD Vance will get any real followers when Trump chokes on his rage? Loyalty to the MAGA cause?
Scientology… I read once that Tom Cruise was a member. Dunno if true. Adepts must give this cult a lot of money. In France it is officially a sect. But there is no ending soon in view.
I see tons of comments on Facebook agreeing with Trump that Omar staged the assault. From what I saw, that was their first and only reaction
I can imagine if Omar's syringe-wielding assailant had attacked an ICE goon. The charge(s) would be felonious. On an unrelated note: I am appalled - APPALLED. - at the invasion of the Equadorian consulate. This type of atrocity ruins our reputation internationally, and takes a lifetime to live down. If America were as great as it was in 1812. - the last time the White House was defiled. - Trump would be in debtor’s prison. In that sense: MAGA.
He’s done so much damage to our reputation in the world, it’ll take GENERATIONS to repair.
Trump could not be more detrimental to America, its institutions, its allegiances… its history if HE TRIED. Which, in light of his bromance with Putin makes me wonder “Is he TRYING to sabotage the republic?” The book “Kompromat” by Craig Unger, makes just such an argument, featuring a decades long recruitment of, ahem, POTUS, by Soviet operative Yuri Schvets. The book is worth a glance. I found a copy at my local library.
Unger and Olga Lautman are essential for understanding the financial connections around this ghoul.
Blessings and Thank you, Jim, and will reStack ASAP 🙏
Wow. An instant classic and the anthem of our era. So glad this song that will stand the test of time honors Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti by name.