It's Manweller again!
The response of Satan's governments and Satan's media to recent elections in places like Syria and Ukraine is consistent. I've been trying to fit it into a larger pattern. Finally located the larger pattern.

Here's the pattern that holds true both WITHIN Satan's homelands and in distant places like Syria and Ukraine:

Elections that count are considered illegitimate. If Satan has the power to overturn such elections, he will. If such elections are in distant places, he will try hard to delegitimize them, but may not be able to eliminate them entirely.

Elections that have zero consequence are legitimate, and will be allowed to stand because they don't matter.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Sure enough, it's another variant on Manweller's Rule. Manweller was originally discussing our idiotic efforts to create "democracy" in countries that hadn't even reached a basic single government. In such countries, elections may occur but they won't count. Competing factions will continue to fight with AK-47s and bombs until one faction wins power.

Manweller's original rule is: Elections only count when they don't really matter.

The current variant is pretty much the converse, with teeth: Elections that count will be overturned and delegitimized.

And how do we know which elections count? That's easy.

Elections that decide between candidates are meaningless. Candidates who make it to the point of electability are identical in their behavior. Candidates are interchangeable.

REFERENDA are meaningful because they change behavior and conditions. Referenda may create new laws, or revise laws, or delete laws, or declare independence, or alter the behavior of politicians.

Look at Syria and Ukraine, or look at any state in US. Referenda that change borders or change conditions for marriage or change laws on capital punishment are instantly overturned by black-robed Satans, or declared invalid by remote control. Elections that replace one identical candidate with another are just fine.

= = = = =

Sidenote: An even more extreme example in yesterday's news. Michigan was accustomed to a congressional election that offered even less choice than two identical candidates. The accustomed and approved election, for 50 years, featured a wide variety of John Conyers. You could vote for John Conyers or John Conyers or John Conyers or John Conyers, depending on your taste and ideology. If you didn't like the way John Conyers was serving the district, you could kick him out and replace him with John Conyers. But! .... because John Conyers is senile, he forgot to file for election this time. THREAT WARNING! DEFCON RED! POSSIBILITY OF ELECTION BETWEEN TWO IDENTICAL CANDIDATES! DOES NOT COMPUTE! DOES NOT COMPUTE! MUST HAVE ONLY ONE IDENTICAL CANDIDATE! TWO IDENTICAL CANDIDATES ARE LOGICALLY IMPOSSIBLE! So Satan rectified the situation, arbitrarily reversing the election laws to insure that the ONLY POSSIBLE ELECTION would continue unabated.
  ¶ 11:21 AM