In mid-October 2020, Rex Brynen helped design and run a “contested US election matrix game” for The New Yorker Radio Hour. Brynen is an assistant professor of political science and the chairperson for the Middle East Studies program at McGill University. He runs a blog dedicated to the effective use of games and “simulation-based learning” in regards to “conflict, peace-building, and development in fragile and conflict-affected states, as well as to the policy application of gaming and simulation techniques”.
Much of this “simulation-based learning” research is funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. The fact that Canadian institutions would be helping fund US election exercises is notable. It reaffirms the bigger issue of the corporate-globalist takeover and how the US is still the biggest obstacle to global governance.
The “Gaming a Contentious American Election” exercise took place over two days, with four separate days simulated over the course of the exercise; November 4th, 9th, 16th, as well as a date in mid-December.
There were eight sets of actors playing the relevant roles in the matrix game, all writers for the New Yorker or others with “appropriate expertise”.
1. President Trump, the Trump administration, Mike Pence, Trump/Pence campaign
2. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, the Biden/Harris campaign
3. The “Republican Establishment”: Members of Congress, Governors, state legislators, and former Republican officials
4. The “Democratic Establishment”: Members of Congress, Governors, state legislators, and former Democratic officials
5. The “Extra-Establishment Right”: QAnon conspiracy theorists, militia members, Proud Boys, right-wing social media trolls, OAN, InfoWars, police unions, etc.
6. The “Extra-Establishment Left”: Black Lives Matter activists, Antifa activists, left-leaning celebrities, progressive social media, etc.7. The Courts: Supreme Court of the US, other federal and state-level courts
8. The Military: Joint Chiefs of Staff, State Adjutants General, senior military commanders, intelligence community reps.
The main focus of the game was on Pennsylvania, a state considered key in determining the final outcome of the election. As with the Hawkfish/Bloomberg “red mirage” scenario, this exercise showed Trump being significantly ahead in Pennsylvania and other swing states on election night only to lose in the days following the election. In this particular exercise the mail-in ballots were assumed to be two-to-one in Biden's favor, which is likely accurate given that the mail-in ballot controversy was divided along partisan lines. Trump voters were much more likely to vote in person on election day, and this was easy for the election wargamers and those involved in the election theft to anticipate. It was stated during the game that a close election was the worst possible scenario, and that “an unambiguous Biden or Trump victory wouldn’t pose the same risks to political stability”.
Interesting they would mention an “unambiguous Trump or Biden victory”. It’s only appeared “unambiguous” because of the unconstitutional mail-in ballots that Covid 19 was used as an excuse for, all to get Biden the numbers he needed to overtake Trump. The media and most politicians have portrayed the Biden “victory” as totally legitimate and not ambiguous at all. That's because the multiple groups that wargamed these scenarios have been able to anticipate (even dictate) the media’s messaging and the public responses, including events or actions that were unforeseen by the public. FoxNews’ reporting on election night is a good example of such unforeseen actions.
The corrupt politicians, their handlers, and the media already ran every eventuality, with the added information of how they were going to steal the election through a variety of tactics anyway. The Transition Integrity Project and its participants were directly involved with the election theft via mail-in ballots and Dominion. The participants in this New Yorker wargame/simulation are all known associates of those involved in the TIP.
The “Gaming a Contentious American Election” exercise began with Trump expressing his concerns over voter fraud, or as the game says, “complaining vociferously about mail-in ballot “fraud,” a narrative that was much amplified by the Extra Establishment Right (including faked videos of supposed wrong-doing)”. There were briefing sheets given to the actors in the game, with each brief tailored to the “world-view” of the actors in order to anticipate the responses from the campaigns, the media, and the public.
An example of an in-game Biden briefing:
“Once again, polls underestimated public support for President Trump. In late October, moreover, the President announced a successful COVID-19 vaccine—though the medical establishment is divided on whether the vaccine in question is efficacious enough for widespread distribution. In several states, voter suppression tactics by Republican-led administrations may have cost the campaign tens of thousands of votes. As a result of all this, the Presidential election has proven to be much closer than expected.On election night the Biden/Harris campaign lost in both Arizona and Florida, and won only narrowly in Wisconsin and Michigan.
Pennsylvania has emerged as an electoral battleground.
In Pennsylvania, the President is currently ahead. However, according to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, mail-in A legal challenge about whether these ballots (which are expected to strongly favor Biden) can be counted is on its way to the US Supreme Court.
The Republican-controlled Legislature in Pennsylvania has said that unless a winner is declared by December 1st, it will award the state’s electors to Trump (one full week ahead of the deadline to name electors). State Democratic legislators have threatened to relocate to West Virginia to prevent a quorum. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf (D) has vowed that Pennsylvania will not name electors until the full election results are certified by Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar (D).
President Trump is ahead in the national vote by a small fraction. However that lead will certainty be reversed as mail-in ballots in places like California get counted.
Democrats seem to have narrowly captured the Senate, but three races are essentially too close to call. The new majority will not be seated until January 3rd. Democrats have kept control of the House.
Amy Coney Barrett has not yet been confirmed by the Senate. Barrett has cleared her hearings in a party line vote. Mitch McConnell has vowed that she will be confirmed by the Senate.
Encouraged by the President, right-wing activists and militias have mobilized, with some arguing that force might be used to prevent a peaceful transfer of power. Several liberal justices have requested enhanced security measures in view of this growing threat.
The number of COVID-19 cases is sharply on the rise once more. Some 300,000 Americans are projected to die by February, a total which could rise to half a million if the President and some Republican governors are successful in further easing restrictions, mask mandates, and other public health measures. Expert consensus is that, despite the premature President’s vaccine announcement, widespread vaccination will not be possible until the late summer.ballots can still arrive for three more days (until Nov. 6th). Between COVID safety precautions and teams of lawyers challenging every ballot, a long count awaits.
Pennsylvania’s election was beset with irregularities. On election day and during the counting, groups of (often heavily-armed) Trump “poll watchers” have intimidated voters and officials alike. We’ve heard unsubstantiated reports about missing mail trucks, which some on the right have fixated on as proof that mail-in voting was somehow rigged.”
On the other hand, this is an example of one of the Trump briefings (interestingly, most of the “Trump” briefings haven't been made public):
“America now faces perhaps its greatest DANGER since the Revolution. The Deep State and communist agitators are CONSPIRING to overturn the election results. The President has signaled that he needs OUR HELP to defeat this conspiracy. #WWG1WGA … We have information that the Democrats plan to flood the count fraudulent Biden mail-in ballots, previously harvested by their activists. Before the election, Antifa anarchists stole several mail-trucks containing blank ballots. Local officials in some Democratic-controlled districts also rebuffed poll-watching and ballot security measures undertaken by patriotic groups of Americans freely exercising their 2nd amendment rights. Clearly they had something to hide.”
It was acknowledged (even celebrated) during the matrix game that the courts were unlikely to be responsive to complaints of voter fraud or widespread “systematic abuse” by the Trump campaign or any lawsuits brought on behalf of the public. The scenario explicitly stated that the courts preferred “to leave the status quo intact in the midst of vote-counting”. This is a misleading statement that implies vote-counting on election night, when in fact, instances of vote-counting continued for days after the election as more mail-in and absentee ballots emerged.
In the game, the White House escalates the situation by sending federal law enforcement to post offices and mail sorting centers in Pennsylvania where they seize ballots to look for evidence of “alleged fraud”. The participants point out that it was too late for such a measure to have any impact as most of the ballots were already at state and county counting centers. The actor playing the Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania responds by deploying the Pennsylvania State Police to vote-counting locations, increasing tensions and triggering the “extra-establishment left” to organize “peaceful candlelit vigils” that grew into a national movement.
“As the vote started to shift decisively to the Biden campaign, Pennsylvania Republicans considered assigning their own set of electors for the Electoral College. That initiative was unsuccessful, however, with too many members of their own party finding it a step too far. Had they been successful, the Democratic establishment was thinking of responding in kind in other states.”
“Given the failure of efforts in the Courts to stop the counting and with Pennsylvania Republicans unwilling to override voters, President Trump’s Twitter feed became even hotter and more voluminous. Police resources were increasingly overstretched by the need to safeguard vote counting centres and keeping an eye on vigils. There was some low-level violence and arson attacks, but the risk of something more serious couldn’t be discounted. As a result, Pennsylvania decided to call up some National Guard units to assist the police.”
As this point in the game, the Pentagon expresses concern over the situation in Pennsylvania, how it would play out, and what escalations were possible. “Efforts had made to assure any military response would be slow and deliberate, stalling for time if necessary and trying to stay out of the political fray”.
This paragraph is interesting in that it mentions National Guard commanders being “careful” which units they called up:
“Concerns grew further when the President started to tweet about federalizing the National Guard too, putting soldiers in the position of having their Commander-in-Chief seemingly at odds with their Governor. Pennsylvania National Guard commanders were careful in which units were called up and where they were sent, focusing on those that were known to have good discipline and calm, level-headed commanders—a tacit acknowledgment that some in the military might handle a fraught situation worse than others.”
Of course, there can't be a Democratic-run election simulation without bringing up Russia's influence. At this point in the game, Russia “dramatically stepped-up social media and other digital activities with the intention of further escalating tensions and possibly provoking more widespread violence”. In response to Russia's activities, the Pentagon decides to retaliate with offensive cyber attacks against Russian internet capabilities, all without consulting the White House.
At this point in the exercise, tensions are growing and the stock market is starting to bottom out. It became “apparent that the Supreme Court—even with the addition of Amy Coney Barrett—was not going to intervene in the election tally in the absence of actual evidence of fraud”.
“With this, many key Republicans (including many major Republican donors) became concerned at the growing potential for violence, political chaos, and economic crisis . Some reached out to the Democrats to see whether Biden campaign might offer political inducements (such as a promise of no “court packing”) to secure Republican endorsement of the election process and outcome. Biden was under pressure from the left of his party not to agree, but he was inclined to hold firm anyway. He had very much stayed the course throughout, counting on the process to work while the Democratic Establishment mobilized legal and other resources to fight for every vote cast.”
The game ends with President Trump “still tweeting angrily from his bunker”, and the National Guard, federal law enforcement, and State Police deployed across Pennsylvania to combat “sporadic acts of limited violence”.
“But a transition to a new Biden presidency seeming largely assured.”
The original document of this exercise has disappeared from the internet, but we do have a copy of the game procedures and media slides that were used. The mock-up media reports and social media posts are worth looking over. I suspect that if Sidney Powell and Rudy Guiliani were to dig deeper into these election simulations, they’d find a significant amount of evidence that further supports election rigging.
Gaming a Contentious American Election
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