The Rhinoceros Party did this in Canada, in the 80s. They found a guy named "John Turner" to run against the prime minister of the same name, in the same riding. Funny stuff!
Three near-identical Boris Vishnevskys on St Petersburg election ballot
91–100 of 177 posts
Re: Three near-identical Boris Vishnevskys on St Petersburg election ballot
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Totalitarian" implies total control - i.e. yes, the ability to direct uniform thugs to kick down doors and execute people in the streets is included in it. Putin's Russia is authoritarian, not totalitarian. That's why political opponents are murdered by assassins, not executed by firing squads.
Sure, but for a society to be "totalitarian" is an asymptotic climb, not a defined goal. An independent Russian businessman might find himself approached by the local mob (under the aegis of an oligarch, who is under the aegis of the Russian state) to acquire a share of his business. He can't turn to any authority for help, and if he refuses his business (or he) will be crippled. That's not total control. Political o…
Russian businessmen being approached by the local mob was more common back in 90s (that much I know from experience, because my parents ran a small business back then, and had to deal with all that). But the country as a whole was less authoritarian than it is today.
As far as doing something that the ruling class doesn't want done - if you mean politically, there are plenty of comparable countries, such as Singapore, that are similarly considered authoritarian but not totalitarian. Totalitarianism normally means total control (or at least the possibility of it) - not just of political participation, but of all spheres of life. Russia may turn totalitarian yet - there are certainly plenty of ideologues advocating it - but it hasn't crossed that line so far.
And yes, of course it's all a spectrum. Totalitarianism itself is a small subset of the much wider authoritarian spectrum.
Re: Three near-identical Boris Vishnevskys on St Petersburg election ballot
#93I'm taking this as a pretty good sign. My poorly informed outsider's opinion of Russian local elections prior to this was that organised fraud was so endemic that resorting to such obvious measures would be unnecessary.
They are completely rigged at all levels. Here, however, every single small region votes for his own candidate, so it is not enough to "tweak" votes a bit at local level, then at aggregate, then statewide. E.g. only 1 level of rigging works, so effect is much smaller.
Re: Three near-identical Boris Vishnevskys on St Petersburg election ballot
#94Why do they even go through this much trouble when they can just count votes such that Единая Россия comes out as a winner, like they did on every election I remember. They stuff ballots into boxes. They invalidate ballots with "wrong" votes. They just simply change the numbers in the protocols without anyone rechecking or recounting. Worst of all, the people who do it are usually school teachers, because polling sta…
It's terribly hard to actually falsify the vote counts across thousands of polling places. In theory, someone observing the process, as should be legal everywhere, will notice the irregularities. It's not impossible, obviously–especially if you have full control of at least anyone important. But plausible deniability suffers rather fast, and that's a valuable assets at the Putin-level of dic(tator|k)ishness.
Oh they interfere with observers a lot. It's a battle, really.
Sometimes, in some far-flung region, an election will end up being fair. Then they still find a way to ultimately "fix" the outcome — see what happened in Khabarovsk with everyone's favorite mayor Sergey Furgal. They found a court case on him from very long ago, arrested him, flew him to Moscow, then Putin dismissed him from mayorship "for loss of trust". Yeah sure, people elected him and had no problems with him, but it's lack of Putin's trust that caused him to lose his office against his and people's will.
Re: Three near-identical Boris Vishnevskys on St Petersburg election ballot
#95I worked with Boris Vishnevsky! Oh wait, different guy ... (But I really did.)
Yes, but which one?
Re: Three near-identical Boris Vishnevskys on St Petersburg election ballot
#96A friend of mine (and my successor as chairman of the Chicago Republican Party) filed a case in the U.S. Supreme Court this week over the same tactic right here in Chicago. https://www.chicagotribune.com/politics/ct-michael-madigan-c... If we win this thing, then filing sham candidates will become illegal in the U.S. It's an utterly corrupt practice.
Why are Republicans suing over a Democratic primary? I'm doubting good faith.
Also this seems to be civil case, not a criminal one, so I'm not sure how it'd make anything illegal?
Re: Three near-identical Boris Vishnevskys on St Petersburg election ballot
#97In Spain not much years ago happened a slightly different but related trick. A party changed late their logo in the ballots to a circle. Casually their rivals from the opposite ideology had adopted before a thin circle as a logo in the voting sheets (shared by all parties). The second circle was more thick (and more visible) than the other and had different letters inside. Clearly different for people with a good sight, maybe not so much for elders.
I bet that this didn't helped at the hour of counting the ballots and I wouldn't be surprised to know that a few votes were assigned wrongly that night at the slighest opportunity.
Re: Three near-identical Boris Vishnevskys on St Petersburg election ballot
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think arguing about Putin's level of control over Russia is splitting dissidents, I mean hairs. The ability to openly murder and gaslight your opponents, even when they are in other countries, is certainly within tolerances for an "actual totalitarian dictatorship"; Putin has, and flaunts, this ability. Is he publicly directing uniformed thugs to kick down doors and execute people in the streets? Well, no, but not…
"Totalitarian" implies total control - i.e. yes, the ability to direct uniform thugs to kick down doors and execute people in the streets is included in it. Putin's Russia is authoritarian, not totalitarian. That's why political opponents are murdered by assassins, not executed by firing squads.
Can you show a quote from somewhere, where "totalitarian" would imply total control? Wikipedia's description of "Totalitarianism" matches state of things in Russia exactly:
- prohibits all opposition parties // check
- outlaws individual opposition to the state // check
- extremely high degree of control over public life // check
- private life // that maybe not, but I am not sure what that means
- political power is often held by autocrats // check
- propaganda is broadcast by state-controlled mass media in order to control the citizenry // check
So the only thing missing is "private life", where I simply can't claim it because I don't understand the requirement.
Re: Three near-identical Boris Vishnevskys on St Petersburg election ballot
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
OP said it happened In Florida but no name changes happened in Florida. My comment was meant to clarify, not argue in bad faith. I said “very” different not “completely different”. Nor did I argue that either should be ignored.
Whether there is a name change involved, the result is the same, to siphon off votes. That's the main thrust of the story in Russia and FL. I'd say very similar not very different .
Can we agree that OP didn't read the article and so didn't really contrast the differences and move on?
Re: Three near-identical Boris Vishnevskys on St Petersburg election ballot
#100Oh, two nearly identical doppelgangers, with matching appearance, age and name?
I wouldn't hesitate to follow great old russian tradition and take a loan. A few million rubles in cash here and there from those shady and unscrupulous lenders, then miss a payment or two and see what happens! A completely legal way to remind those people that Russia isn't European country yet. Nor Saint Petersburg is Miami.