More about that Time article: the Arizona call by Fox and many other incidents of interest
That recent Time article I’ve already discussed (in this post) is the gift that keeps on giving. The more you think about the article, the more it seems to reveal and/or suggest.
For example, take this excerpt [emphasis added mine; additions in brackets mine]:
Election night began with many Democrats despairing. Trump was running ahead of pre-election polling, winning Florida, Ohio and Texas easily and keeping Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania too close to call. But Podhorzer [head of the anti-Trump “cabal”] was unperturbed when I [author of the Time piece Molly Ball] spoke to him that night: the returns were exactly in line with his modeling. He had been warning for weeks that Trump voters’ turnout was surging. As the numbers dribbled out, he could tell that as long as all the votes were counted, Trump would lose.
Before and after the election, the mantra of the anti-Trump forces was “count all the votes” whereas that of the pro-Trump forces was “count all the legal votes.” It seems that Podhorzer was very confident despite the initial returns that frightened so many people on his side and elated the other side. Why was he so sanguine? Why was he so sure that once all the votes (absence of qualifier “legal”) were counted, Biden would win? Perhaps it was just statistics, or perhaps it was all those poll workers the left had recruited over the previous year (as the Time article said), and perhaps it was the nationwide coordination he put in place that could communicate with them instantaneously.
The article continues [emphasis mine]:
The liberal alliance gathered for an 11 p.m. Zoom call. Hundreds joined; many were freaking out. “It was really important for me and the team in that moment to help ground people in what we had already known was true,” says Angela Peoples, director for the Democracy Defense Coalition. Podhorzer presented data to show the group that victory was in hand.
Note that there were hundreds of people all over the country in on the call. And note that the coordinators already knew the outcome of the election. Now, it’s one thing to talk statistics and what you think will be happening. But these people are using language of predetermined certainty.
More:
While [Podhorzer] was talking, Fox News surprised everyone by calling Arizona for Biden. The public-awareness campaign had worked: TV anchors were bending over backward to counsel caution and frame the vote count accurately. The question then became what to do next.
Was this really a surprise? After all, as the second sentence indicates, the anti-Trump coalition had been in communication with the TV people about how to call the election. And why was calling Arizona way too early (and supposedly surprisingly so) equated to “framing the vote count accurately“? There seems to be a contradiction there.
Next [emphasis mine]:
The conversation that followed was a difficult one, led by the activists charged with the protest strategy. “We wanted to be mindful of when was the right time to call for moving masses of people into the street,” Peoples says. As much as they were eager to mount a show of strength, mobilizing immediately could backfire and put people at risk. Protests that devolved into violent clashes would give Trump a pretext to send in federal agents or troops as he had over the summer. And rather than elevate Trump’s complaints by continuing to fight him, the alliance wanted to send the message that the people had spoken.
So the word went out: stand down. Protect the Results announced that it would “not be activating the entire national mobilization network today, but remains ready to activate if necessary.” On Twitter, outraged progressives wondered what was going on. Why wasn’t anyone trying to stop Trump’s coup? Where were all the protests?
Note that they label Trump’s winning the vote in a normal fashion to be a “coup” by definition. There are no allegations at that point that he had cheated in any way, so the coup seems to simply have consisted of him being ahead. This is very indicative of their partisan mindset despite disclaimers.
Note also there were “hundreds” on the call being coordinated. And I don’t think any of them were the rank-and-file workers; these were the leaders in many walks of life and of many organizations that were involved.
Note also that the rioters who had been destroying cities all summer and most of the fall stopped rioting on a dime when they were told to do so by these “we’re just interested in a fair election” leaders. In fact, they apparently always had had the power to stop the riots the whole time, because it seems those riots were not spontaneous uprisings (although they also attracted some people who would fit that description) but strategic ones orchestrated by many groups under a central leadership, and their aim seems to have been to influence the 2020 election rather than anything having to do with saving black lives.
The right suspected that all along, but the Time article is a frank and unashamed admission of it. The final aim of such riots, also connected with the election, was the enlistment of fearful merchants’ organizations such as the Chamber of Commerce as well as larger corporations, through using the threats of further riots if these entities didn’t cooperate with and aid their election efforts in the ways that were suggested. This approach was very very successful in getting people onboard out of fear.
Now let’s get back to that pivotal moment mentioned earlier, Fox News calling Arizona for Biden. On election night, it puzzled and infuriated a lot of people on the right when that happened, because at the time Trump was way ahead and at the very least the outcome still seemed in doubt. Although it was possible that he would lose, there didn’t seem to be any basis to say he absolutely would lose, and yet that’s exactly what Fox was saying by calling the state.
The Epoch Times has some further background on that:
The description [concerning the Arizona call in the Time article] surrounding election night, while short, is telling and raises further questions. Despite the overall tone of the article, it seems clear that Democrats thought they had lost the election in the later hours of Nov. 3th, 2020.
That’s the rank-and-file Democrats; the people in charge of this Zoom call didn’t seem to think so. In fact, they seemed quite sure the election had been won.
This is what the Epoch Times adds:
One analyst, described as a “member of a major network’s political unit who spoke with Podhorzer before Election Day” told Time that having access to Pordhorzor’s data and being able to “document how big the absentee wave would be and the variance by state was essential.”
Arnon Mishkin, an outside contractor and a Democrat, was the individual at Fox who reportedly made the call on Arizona at 11:20 p.m. New York time. According to one report, “No announcement was made until anchor Bill Hemmer, reviewing the latest status of an electoral map that was looking positive for Trump, glanced at the southwest, where the decision desk had left its yellow check mark on Arizona awarding the state to Biden.”
After making his call on Arizona, Mishkin stated that Trump was “likely to only get about 44% of the outstanding votes that are there.” Mishkin was wrong. Trump got a significantly higher percentage of the remaining votes, and although the Arizona call ultimately stood, it was far closer than Mishkin had forecast. Indeed, there’s currently a parallel audit underway in Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous county.
How wrong was Mishkin? Very wrong indeed. Here’s the Arizona vote as it stands now: Biden 49.36% to Trump’s 49.06%, or a difference of 10,457 votes. The Fox News call for Arizona at that time was preposterous, and the Republican-voting viewers who were outraged were right to feel that way.
Why was Mishkin so confident? Was he just crunching the numbers, or did he have the knowledge that the numbers would be found no matter what?
In addition, the Time article makes it clear that those organizing this enormous effort to “fortify” the vote also had recruited “armies of poll workers.” I wonder where these poll workers were recruited and who they were, but I suspect I know. It would be fascinating to learn. But I suspect they were in those all-important blue cities, and there is no reason to believe they were non-partisan or on the right. The article also describes huge numbers of partisan observers that were sent to places where there were deemed to be too many Republican observers, in order to challenge them.
Note also the time this Zoom call happened: 11 PM on election night. When was it that a number of swing states supposedly closed for the evening and sent most observers home, and yet continued to count? Didn’t it start around then, or at least between 11 PM and 1 AM? The right immediately noticed the oddness and the seeming coordination of the shutdown/count, something that seems to have never happened before and certainly not in this multi-state manner. It was during these “closed” hours that all the swing states in which Trump had been strongly ahead suddenly switched and found Biden ahead. These were the disputed ballots in true-blue cities, mostly mail-in and often separated forever from their envelopes without Republicans able to watch and verify the process.
It seems to me that it is likely that this was coordinated from the same central group that “knew” Trump would lose. The Time article doesn’t confess to that, but it’s hard to read the piece without coming to the conclusion that, if in fact widespread fraud occurred, this was the way it was centrally orchestrated.
Also from the Time article, this is one of many things that happened post-election, also orchestrated by the central group:
Activists called “attention to the racial implications of disenfranchising Black Detroiters. They flooded the Wayne County canvassing board’s Nov. 17 certification meeting with on-message testimony.” Detroit’s vote was certified by the Republican board members.
Finally, the pressure on state legislatures was intense. On Nov. 20, Trump invited the Republican leaders of the Michigan legislature to the White House. According to the article, a “full-court press” was launched by the left and “Protect Democracy’s local contacts researched the lawmakers’ personal and political motives.”
Reyes’s activists rallied at departure and arrival terminals for the Republican state lawmakers’ trip to D.C.
The final step in certifying the Michigan vote was a vote from the state canvassing board, which was comprised of two Republicans and two Democrats. “Reyes’s activists flooded the livestream and filled Twitter with their hashtag, #alleyesonmi. A board accustomed to attendance in the single digits suddenly faced an audience of thousands.”
The vote was certified 3-0, with one Republican abstaining.
The article doesn’t mention it, but do you remember the threats and intimidation involved? The link I just gave is dated November 18, 2020, and I’m going to quote liberally from it because I think it’s important to understand the nature of the pressure that was brought to bear, and how difficult it was for the less-than-hard-boiled panel members to resist it:
A Michigan mother who was one of two Republicans on a panel appointed to certify the Detroit-area election results said she faced “heartbreaking” attacks, including being called a racist, when she raised objections over potential irregularities.
She and the other Republican member of the board changed their votes against certifying election results Tuesday with little explanation after enduring nearly three hours of insults and intimidation, including mentions of their children.
In a statement late Wednesday, Wayne County canvassing board chairwoman Monica Palmer called it “heartbreaking” to sit and listen to people attack her…
Democrat Abraham Aiyash, who is representative-elect for Michigan’s State House District 4 after running unopposed, took aim at Palmer and brought up the school her children likely attend.
“You, Miss Monica Palmer from Grosse Pointe Woods, which has a history of racism, are deciding to enable and continue to perpetuate the racist history of this country. And I want you to think about what that means for your kids, who probably go to Grosse Pointe North,” Aiyash said, a reference to a public high school in Palmer’s neighborhood…
The four-person panel’s two Republicans, Palmer and William Hartmann, initially voted against certifying the results of the election due to discrepancies in many precinct results. The 2-2 board deadlock would have meant that election results from the state’s most populous county, which includes the city of Detroit, would have been sent to a state elections board…
…[T]he vote set off a furious, and ultimately successful, effort to get the GOP members to back down. Aiyash was not the only critic to bring up the Republican board members’ families during the public comment period.
“Your children will be disgusted, and I am sad that you have influence over them,” said Pastor Edward Pruitt.
“Monica, your daughter is gonna look at you in disgust because she’s going to know,” said Trische Duckworth. “And this is going to affect her because people will ask her, ‘Is your mother a racist?'”
“I’m sorry for your descendants, who will be so ashamed of you,” said poll worker Liza Bielby.
Palmer drew controversy when she said she would be open to certifying some of the results from the county’s jurisdictions but not Detroit and other mismatched areas. Some claimed it was an attempt at disenfranchisement, as Detroit is more than 78% black.
“You’re up there with George Wallace and Bull Connor and all those people. And your QAnon crap, that’s all gonna come out,” said Kim Hunter. “Get ready for the racism that you unleash.”
“I hope that your name lives in infamy of being — disenfranchising voters, and racist, and continuing Jim Crow laws, and the attitude of Jim Crow into 2020,” aid Detroit Charter Revision Commissioner Denzel McCampbell.
One speaker, Ashley Daniels, accused Hartmann of being racist by not calling on people with “ethnic names” to provide comments. “They’re not that hard,” she said. “You’re racist, and you do not like women,” she added.
…When the board returned, the members explained that they had unanimously voted to certify the election…
Wayne County has been the center of most of the lawsuits and allegations of election fraud that the Trump campaign and Republicans in the state have levied. The Trump team’s federal lawsuit includes dozens of sworn affidavits from GOP poll challengers who claim to have witnessed electoral malfeasance, in particular at the TCF Center in Detroit, where absentee ballots were tabulated. Some claim they endured harassment and “intimidation” from poll workers.
I don’t doubt they endured exactly that.
Republican election workers are a group of undefended volunteer individuals. Democrat election workers are organized from Day 1 as a unified mafia. The results are clear.
If you think that was bad enough, TIME is now out with their second in-depth confessional article, this one about the COVID-19 management – in which, the National Institute of Health decided to …well… obfuscate what they were doing in order to stay under the radar of the Trump administration. Gumming up the works, one might say, lest testing technology begin to be too closely scrutizined.
“A few weeks earlier, Congress had given the NIH $1.5 billion to try to speed up the process of developing new diagnostic tests for COVID-19, and the White House, which was dubious about increasing the rate of testing, wanted to know more about what the NIH was doing.
“In June, Kushner visited the NIH to hear about the new plan, known as RADx (Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics), from other points of view. This time Collins’ engineering staff went into nerd-overdrive detail. “And that was the last we heard of White House interest in what we were doing for diagnostics,” says Collins. “To this day I have never done a briefing about RADx in the White House task force. And that was just fine.”
…”Collins has had to use every one of those abilities as he has tried to manipulate the levers of scientific mastery and money to confront the pandemic in the U.S. at a time of political instability.
https://time.com/5935658/nih-director-francis-collins-interview/
I guess it’s TIME for us all to be de-programmed now, don’t ya see?
Mistah Kurtz, He not Dead Yet.
Reading the above about an election being rigged in real time while intelligence services of multiple countries listen in, all I can think of is “Exterminate the Brutes!”.
Problematic (heh) analogy though given that Conrad makes it clear that Kurtz was a bright and bushy-tailed Enlightened Progressive — and the monster he ended up becoming was the natural result of the collision between his ideology and Base Reality.
Neo-“ It seems to me that it is likely that this shutdown was coordinated from the same central group that “knew” Trump would lose. The Time article doesn’t confess to that, but it’s hard to read the piece without coming to the conclusion that, if in fact widespread fraud occurred, this was the way it was centrally orchestrated.”
So, under the guise of neo-racism and under the corporatist fascist banner, it really was a “colour [revolution]” coup. Got it.
And Time magazine provides the confession, under close reading.
THIS is how mob “justice” works.
Wow, an opus.
One thing I’m reminded of: Biden was said to be winning WI by 15% and so on. Preposterous. We all felt a certain grim pleasure knowing that was wrong. Still, the depth of the lies and deceptions speak to the truth: WE won. We are the majority. That’s why they need to scramble to consolidate power and to set the Narrative in concrete.
Monica Palmer and Hartmann obviously lacked the courage of their convictions and the rectitude to fulfill their duties in the face of harassment.
Not even a mention of their punching back when attacked. They sold out honest government at the mere threat of being marginalized.
After they quailed and caved, they then tried to save face by brandishing a supposed agreement with the Secretary of State which she declared she had no duty, or apparently intention, to honor.
The cherry on top was Palmer’s appearance at the legislative hearing with Rudy Giuliani. There, following the forceful and courageous revelations made by Republican poll watchers regarding the corrupt goings-on at the TCF Center by Democrat poll workers, she launched into a tepid litany of hesitant “suggestions” as to how the process might be made better.
At that point I could not watch anymore.
Courageous poll watchers trying to ensure election integrity, backed by timid and yielding canvassers who cower upon being called names. Such people are unfitted for the very freedoms to which they pretend.
@Aggie:
I’ve had conversations with Managerialist Bugmen Overlord Acolytes and sooner or later many of them will speak in reverent tones of The Nudge.
Acolyte Class gets their talking points from NYT, FT, Economist, etc…. it’s kind of fun to observe the incoming wave of bullshit from far off and then suddenly the Bug People all bob up in synchrony same time as the wave hits them and then it’s time for the next one… Must be about time for R2P to make a reappearance given that awful Nuland Woman is back in play.
Unfortunately wavelength of Nudge seems to be longish… and may yet be building up to Prod.
Excellent post. The more I read – from the other side! – the more convinced I am that the election was stolen.
And now they have the Army protecting them in DC while the Democrats destroy the Republic.
The purpose of the TIME article is that resistance is futile… that they have such control they can admit it and nothing will happen… even worse, who are their bosses from other countries? which countries? definitely more than one…
bye bye ms american pie…
Aggie links to Dr Francis Collins interview at Time magazine. Yet more mysterious blame Trump bleating about lives lost, when many others, especially unnamed decision makes around the US, are admittedly involved in these loses.
Plus, neo-racism gets the NYTimes explicit workout, as well as neo-sexism (implied by not mentioning that men die twice as often from Covid-19, and that’s a greater inequality)…. Excerpt:
“Collins notes that as a geneticist, he knew this had nothing to do with biology.” Sure. And melatonin enriched people’s vitamin D deficiencies have nothing to do with race and susceptibility to death from under active immune systems fighting off a respiratory illness!
WHAT TOTAL PC “party Line” GARBAGE.
“now they have the Army protecting them in DC while the Democrats destroy the Republic.” CatoRenasci
Yes, 80% of whom the left’s leadership see as ‘disloyal’ because they rightly sense their loyalty to the truism that legitimate governance rests upon “consent of the governed”.
“The purpose of the TIME article is that resistance is futile… that they have such control they can admit it and nothing will happen…” Artfldgr
Pride and its cousin hubris, always precedes the fall.
To steal and then admit to the victim that you did indeed steal from them and then publicly gloat about the victim’s helplessness is to create a deep and lasting animosity, one impossible to mend.
Now that they possess the illusion of power, their delusions are becoming undeniable, even to their liberal enablers. Every day they are undermining their support, until like an avalanche it will ‘suddenly’ collapse.
An agenda that relies upon deceit has no basis in reality. A mirage that rests upon that enemy of reality, wishful thinking.
The left in its arrogant, righteous ‘certainty’ is courting a terrible reckoning.
The article also describes huge numbers of partisan observers that were sent to places where there were deemed to be too many Republican observers, in order to challenge them.
I believe it was one of Neo’s posts a couple or few days after the election that had a video of a Michigan legislature hearing featuring two young GOP poll observers. The young woman, a US citizen originally from India, spoke at great length. I recall pulling the long youtube video up on my TV and the only search that yielded the video was a search for DIYA TV USA.
Anyway, this woman who was poll watching at the big Detroit polling precinct experienced more than one hundred Dem poll watchers who, in her words, engaged in no poll watching activities, but were there solely to block, harass and antagonize GOP poll watchers.
I’m not sure what Neo meant by the word “challenge.” I believe that this word is correctly used to declare an official vote protest. And challenging a challenge is probably common. But in this one circumstance, GOP observers were uncomfortably challenged by a mob.
Amazing post Neo.
Sorry, I meant to say “an official vote counting protest.”
“ Why was Mishkin so confident? Was he just crunching the numbers, or did he have the knowledge that the numbers would be found no matter what?”. The numbers would be found. My limited analysis of the voting data shows huge vote dumps of 100,000+ votes in the middle of the night for Bidden in several of the states. Another method of cheating: the rate at which Biden gets votes suddenly accelerates and Trump’s rate goes down. In yet a third method, there’s blatant fraud and votes are regularly subtracted from Trump’s total. As Dementia Joe said on the campaign trail “We have put together, I think, the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics”. He wasn’t kidding.
TommyJay:A
Awoman originally from India “experienced more than one hundred Dem poll watchers who, in her words, engaged in no poll watching activities, but were there solely to block, harass and antagonize GOP poll watchers.”
I remember her testimony. SCOTUS could have saved us from the coming blood filled reckoning had they simply declared, via Bush-Gore, that neither voter suppression nor ballot stuffing satisfy’s the equal protection clause of the Constitution.
Absent that, there will be blood.
Geoffrey Britain waxes eloquent about Le deluge: “To steal and then admit to the victim that you did indeed steal from them and then publicly gloat about the victim’s helplessness is to create a deep and lasting animosity, one impossible to mend.
“Now that they possess the illusion of power, their delusions are becoming undeniable, even to their liberal enablers. Every day they are undermining their support, until like an avalanche it will ‘suddenly’ collapse….
“The left in its arrogant, righteous ‘certainty’ is courting a terrible reckoning.”
It’s not only the Left that deserve what’s coming, We do, too. (And by “we” I mean the Pubbies, the Right for failing to identify, condemn, and match the enemy. Not necessarily us, here, or even the Trump voter.)
“The purpose of the TIME article is that resistance is futile… that they have such control they can admit it and nothing will happen…” Artfldgr
When I first read the Time article I was baffled about why after having stolen the election, they would actually publicly brag about how they did it? But I think that Artfldgr has nailed it- they want us to know that they are in charge now and we no longer have any power to do anything about it.
For what it’s worth, I think that they have overplayed their hand. I agree with Geoffrey Britain that pride comes before the fall and there will be a reckoning.
Chris B:
I think it didn’t have a single message. I agree that “resistance is futile” is one message – for the right. But there are messages for the left and middle as well: “see what we did for you to thwart those deplorables.” And “it was all legal, and all for noble ends.” That message is delivered and is supposed to get ahead of any news from the right that might tend to implicate the left as partisan players. Also, the article delivers the idea over and over that any assertion of election fraud 2020 is bogus. It never cops to actual fraud, although it certainly implies it but only to those inclined to already think it. Many people have said their Democrat friends have reacted to it by praising the actions described there to “fortify” the election and democracy.
This information reenforces my feelings in November that a incredible well organized national voting fraud was occurring and they pulled it off. What bothers me most of all is that the entire Federal Intelligence and Law Enforcement executives, DOJ and all the alphabets were in on it too. The next year or two will be rather interesting an I don’t have any idea how this stuff will play out with the new line up in DC and all the old entrenched federal employees pushing things into a higher gear with as much sense as a 16 year old boy with his dad’s new Corvette on prom night with several cases of beer and his favorite young cheer leader beside him.
The amount of collusion with media, big money, community organizers and their riots on demand controlled by the DNC is rather frightful.
ChrisB…just a quibble…but a worthy one IMO
“Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.” – Proverbs 16:18
Unless & until there’s real, real time accountability, aka destruction, this is just the first step toward the Venezuela-fication of the USA.
As of now…they’re proud because no one has done anything to stop them.
Great post! Lots of details I missed. Thanks!
It’s heart breaking to read.
I don’t think the chamber of commerce supported the Democrats due to fear of rioting, it was more fear of Trump cutting off all the money they were making from importing goods, and exporting us jobs.
There are two different chamber of commerce’s. The Wall Street big business that hated Trump that is more globalist / internationalist, and the small business is based ones (regional) that supports American Interests.
The National Chamber of commerce has been enemies of Trump since he got elected in 2016.
“That message is delivered and is supposed to get ahead of any news from the right that might tend to implicate the left as partisan players.” neo
Yes, that probably is more their intent than to rub the deplorables noses in their helplessness. But it doesn’t matter as the true believers have repeatedly demonstrated that they will justify and rationalize any degree of deceit and lawlessness.
Experience has also shown that nothing we might say will sway liberal minds.
Which doesn’t matter either, as the left’s ideological fanaticism will convince liberals of the left’s insanity far more persuasively than could we deplorables.
Because “this is just the first step toward the Venezuela-fication of the USA” and that’s going to be “a bridge too far” for 74+ Million patriotic Americans. And, a bridge too far for that 80% of the US Military that remain loyal to the principles enshrined within both the Constitution and the Declaration.
“Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
It’s not just the American left who intend to reduce us under Absolute Despotism. The global elite involved in the Great Reset do as well. And the Chinese Communist Party are utterly devoted to becoming “the first among equals” in a world where only communism exists.
It’s a necessity you see, in order to build a more perfect world that only they can guide us to…
Up to now really thought the Fox call was the signal, but this Zoom call appears to be the word to stop the counts in many battleground states. Fox was jumping the gun.
How are conservatives ever going to win another election that matters? Oh, the GOP can win Senate seats from flyover states like Nebraska but so what?
I had some recent experiences with students, recent alums and the faculty from Creighton’s School of Law. All woke, SJW and Green Warriors.
The Left has won the march through the institutions.
Cornhead— next election?
How does this hyperpowered enemy with dominant propaganda cover within even recognise legitimate opposition? They won’t.
Jim Quinn (like Duke Selwyn at Am Thinker) says Irish Democracy, or mass passive resistance, is needed.
Two part posts “A Strange Game” introduces and lays it out as the most peaceful and least risky and effective Resistance strategy — and therefore most viable path forward.
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2021/02/07/a-strange-game/#more-232964
“The building anger in the country is palpable. The question is how do you fight an enemy with overwhelming superiority in financial resources, police and military forces, corporate media outlets, social media platforms, the financial system, intel agencies, and all branches of the government? This question is what made me recall the WarGames [the early 1980s movie]final scene. The only winning move is not to play. Direct confrontation is destined for failure.
“The only way to defeat this enemy is through guile, cunning, patience, and persistence. The same method of resistance will not work for all people. Everyone’s individual circumstances will dictate how they resist. There doesn’t need to be a central commander or massed forces. Differing versions of guerrilla warfare will suffice. The enemy is a bureaucratic behemoth, slow and unwieldy, led by arrogant mediocrities, unable to strategize their way out of a wet paper bag. They know only how to use force and threats to achieve their despicable ends.”
The question is what to do about it. IMO a nationwide push for accurate hard to corrupt voting systems should be top priority.
As a computer professional who has written tens of thousands of lines of code and designed several successful complex systems, I believe that all the software in voting systems should be open source in C running under Linux.
Paper ballots should be used so a permanent record is created. Voters should be able to see their ballot scanned and review the result of the scan immediately.
Scans of mailed ballots could be provided by using public/private key encrypted access over the internet.
The cost of scanners has plummeted and quality has soared. Voting machines could incorporate scanners in each booth which would be fed the paper ballot, display the result, print a confirmation ticket, and save the ballot in a secure container once the voter approved the scan.
Voting system suppliers should compete on things like reliability, cost, support and training provided, level of repair parts and devices and ability to provide quick maintenance service. Their systems should all use the same open source code.
Processors running the systems shouldn’t have the hardware to support any type of communication except direct physical connection, no Wi-Fi or Bluetooth or other similar hardware should be allowed. Open source memory image tests also should be provided to poll watchers who could run the test on machines at will. Audit trails of the types long used in banking systems could easily provide almost unbreakable security of results.
Go into a booth or sit at your kitchen table and mark a paper ballot. Watch it being scanned and check the results or go online and use the private key provided with your ballot to see how it was recorded, with the software providing online access also open source.
This article provides good information on the weaknesses of the current systems. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2020/11/02/computer-experts-sound-warnings-safety-americas-voting-machines/6087174002/
Direct Recording Electronic voting systems, or DREs, should be replaced by scanners at all polling places which would scan ballots immediately and let the voter see the results.
Total transparency is the only solution to the sort of behavior we saw in the last election. Voters should be able to see their ballot processed, see the votes counted, and know that armies of geeks are looking at everything in the systems being used.
I sent the above to the heads of the Texas House and Senate Committees handling elections. So far no response from either. Public pressure to change to open source and end the use of DRE’s is the only thing that will change the system.
There is a pathological mindset among GOP leadership that finds comfort and security in being in the opposition, and fear of leading. It has been corrupted by the Swamp mentality and the perks that go with being part of the political elite. Trump was Rodney Dangerfield in Back To School. Fuck’em,
The reaction to the treatment of Trump may finally result in the public reclaiming the GOP. Liz Chaney is an excellent example, a Swamp resident married to a DC lawyer who was just overwhelmingly censured by the Wyoming Republican Committee. It should be followed by a vote of the Wyoming Legislature demanding that she resign. She won’t, but will be like a splinter in the finger of the GOP RINO’s.
DICK ILLYES,
All your solutions to the voting situation would work fine, except for one detail you overlook: they would NEVER allow such solutions to be implemented. To slightly misquote an old TV show: “they control the horizontal, they control the vertical, they control your TV”.
I see no solution to this situation. Maybe GB is correct and they will overplay their hand and those antitrump voters who did so because of Mean Tweets will wake up, but I don’t see that happening. At least, among the ones I know well…for them life is good now that the bad orange man is gone. They are riding the alligator and have no clue that they are.
They have won. There’s nothing I can do to stop it. I’ll just try to live the rest of my life in the best way possible. Thank God there’s not too much left, but I’m so sad for my daughters and what they will have to endure.
Physicsguy “they would NEVER allow such solutions to be implemented.”
That’s how I read this overview for permanently corrupted “elections” via far Left House and Senate voting reforms.
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/if-you-thought-2020-elections-were-chaotic-just-wait
“I see no solution to this situation….They have won. There’s nothing I can do to stop it.“ Settle in (or emigrate).
Just as I get all long-term optimistic as Resistance Jim Quinn can get us to be, then I read about THIS “reform” measure, and lose it like PG.
Only if madness like this gets stopped in the Senate will we have a shot to win without bloody Hell.
Apropos Physicsguy is Victor David Hanson in American Greatness, who compares Orwell’s “Animal Farm” then to today’s revolutionaries: it’s completely about wielding power.
“The revolutionary animals are now running the farm in a way that would be nightmarish even to Farmer Jones.
“They won. They are now one with—but also far, far worse than—what they rebelled against.”
Thus, the title is “Our Animal Farm.” Cheeky.
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/our-animal-farm
Food for thought. Time tells us about how the Dems organized and prepared for victory on multiple fronts. Where was Trump’s team?
Why didn’t Trump have a Jim Baker? They knew the Dems would cheat. Why weren’t the lawyers better and better prepared. It was really quite ad hoc.
@Aggie:Republican election workers are a group of undefended volunteer individuals. Democrat election workers are organized from Day 1 as a unified mafia. The results are clear.
The national Republican party is controlled opposition. It’s the Harlem Globetrotters vs the Washington Generals, but the audience is supposed to believe it’s a real game.
That’s why there are no Zoom calls in the dead of night with hundreds of national Republican leaders trying to figure out what to do mid-election. If they are a real party that really wants to win why would they not bother? I mean you can lay the absence of rent-a-mobs ready to riot or stand down on command to the temperamental difference between who votes Republican and who doesn’t. But both parties, if real, have the same interest in winning elections and should have the same reason and ability to organize. These people don’t work in isolation. They all know the same people, and all these people work for US currency.
At the state and local level I’m sure things are different, and will continue to be for a while. But the national GOP is I am convinced, fake.
@Cornhead:Why didn’t Trump have a Jim Baker? They knew the Dems would cheat. Why weren’t the lawyers better and better prepared. It was really quite ad hoc.
Because at the national level there’s no help.
Tens if not hundreds of thousands of people at all levels of government, not all Democrats, organized to help win the election.
Trump can’t summon that kind of help out of thin air. Getting Jim Baker wouldn’t work, because even if he were willing, he can’t do it all himself any more than Trump can.
The millions of people who eat taxes, and the hundreds of thousand of tax-eaters who actually make the government work, were against Trump.
Not a lot of people know this, but in China there are eight legal opposition parties, including Kuomintang (whose leaders fled to and founded the government of Taiwan).
China has elections, and in these elections these parties get their members elected to things. Funny enough, they never actually do anything different from what the Communist Party wants done.
On the national level, this is the destination to which we are rapidly approaching. It is amusing and profitable to be an elected official in a permanent minority party.
We keep voting for different lizards, trying to keep the wrong lizards out, and we’re always surprised that the lizard agenda keeps advancing.
To all you pessimists consider a lesson from the USN when all seemed lost:
https://youtu.be/4AdcvDiA3lE
Taffy 3 and the Battle off Samar
https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/wars-conflicts-and-operations/world-war-ii/1944/samar.html
I don’t think I will ever forget watching Fox News on election night when Bill Hemmer, quite visibly astonished at the call, announced that Arizona had just been called for Biden. Hemmer stumbled and dissembled about the call, wondering out loud (IIRC) how the election desk could have made that call, given the numbers that were then available.
And then something really noteworthy happened: Chris Stirewalt stepped out from the election center and said something like “you wonder how we could make that call? Because we are that good.”
He did so with a very contorted grin. His body language at that moment was clear to me: he knew something he was not telling us, something like “I have been in contact with the people pulling the levers, and they assure me Biden will find the numbers he needs.”
I remember having that insight with no doubts. This guy was telling us we were a bunch of rubes, and he knew the real truth, the truth that had been revealed to him with the help of stones he put on his eyes, or perhaps a Zoom call?
Fox took a lot of grief over that call and the fact that they had delayed so long calling Florida and one other state — Texas? — for Trump. I don’t remember those two states. But that was the first moment I wondered if there was some kind of conspiracy afoot.
Now Time magazine (of all sources! Time magazine, which no one reads any longer) confirms there was indeed a conspiracy.
@ Fredrick,
You made a couple of good points there. John Engler getting on the phone and shilling for the Dems in order to keep his Chamber bowl filled is a probable example. Because he once was a good man, I’ll give it a 20% chance he actually thought what he was doing was right.
@ in general …
I now have tried to sit through Mike Lindell’s absolute proof video a couple times. In order to cut to the chase yourself, you can go to about 1hr:36min of the video and look at the supposed evidence of voter machine manipulation.
I stared in bewilderment at this so-called proof (which for all I know might be evidence of some kind showing something real) as it was entirely unsourced or provenanced, apart from an “expert’s” name and her assertions, and an impressive looking log file and some ISP address connection maps.
Ok. Great. But …
Where did this information originate? Who were the experts gathering it in supposed real time and why? How did they establish that the computer ID numbers in the US accessed from China were in fact the hardware inside specific and identifiable machines? ( In one case I can think of this tracing might be posdible, as a judge authorized the examination of a machine)
But in general, I am dumbfounded at what people take to be proof. An admittedly impressive looking log file filled with plausible data counts almost for nothing until the origin of this record can be established and the information within it concerning access points and downloads can be demonstrably linked to specific and identifiable computer hardware within the US.
I just don’t get it. How can people so successful as Lindell, have such disorganized and slipshod minds?
As I write this the Democrats with help from Republicans who still don’t realize who has been reelecting them all these years, are trying to get rid of Trump in every possible way. Politically, through a 2nd impeachment, and a Georgia State Democratic DA, and civilly through numerous DAs and prosecutors going after him for his personal life and work. Truly, they used the entire country- every part of the government, media, Big Tech, and unions, voting machine manufacturers and voting software developers, and every politico they could pay to make this happen. They wanted to- no…they had to use everything in their arsenal to beat Trump. He won. He should still be President. They could not let that happen. And they know this one thing: There are no Republicans who can draw as much enthusiasm as Trump did. People do not have that fire for politicians. They have that fire for fighters. There are well spoken Republicans, and a few that can fight. But none that are immune to the constant incoming artillery from the other side, as Trump was. He will be missed. What has happened here is nothing less than a coup.
@newmanian:There are no Republicans who can draw as much enthusiasm as Trump did. People do not have that fire for politicians. They have that fire for fighters. There are well spoken Republicans, and a few that can fight. But none that are immune to the constant incoming artillery from the other side, as Trump was.
The obvious corollary is that for the national GOP, winning Presidential elections is completely secondary to something else.
What is that something else? I think it is directing Federal tax dollars to favored clients. To do that effectively, and profit from it, a potentially obstructive minority can be much more effective than a governing majority…
Trump did not know who was supposed to be allowed to cash in, and that’s why Republicans preferred to lose without him than win with him.
Fredrick:
Start your own third party, the “Party Of Fredrick.” Let us know when you have the reigns of power fully in hand. It is after all “obvious.” Any more optimistic paths forward?
I recall the AG of Pennsylvania saying–with total confidence & before the election– that he was certain that Biden would win PA going away, despite Trump pulling in huge crowds at campaign rallies & Biden drawing flies.
As Dementia Joe said on the campaign trail “We have put together, I think, the most extensive and inclusive voter fraud organization in the history of American politics”.
It was a coup de etat, and if you think it will be undone in 2022, you are deluding yourself.
The Democrats will remain in power forever. They intend to crush us and make us as a nation permanently financially dependent on helicopter money from DC.
As Dostoevsky wrote of the sheeple’s plaint, “Just feed us!”
That will be the cry of the American sheep. There will be no “Stop the BS COVID-based oppression”. Venezuela, here we come.
And National Guardsmen, vetted for their loyalty to command, remain (?indefinitely) in DC armed with live ammo with which to shoot and kill fellow American citizens. There will be no national outburst of response as there was to the Kent State shootings in the event. “The right of the people to peaceably assemble and petition for a redress of grievances” is gone, de facto deleted as a constitutional right by our new rulers..
I’m changing my registration to “Independent”, possibly even “Democrat” ASAP. Gotta go into hiding.
Watch out for yourselves!
physicsguy,
“Maybe GB is correct and they will overplay their hand and those antitrump voters who did so because of Mean Tweets will wake up, but I don’t see that”
I don’t think they’re going to wake up. I do think their support for where the democrats are taking America will greatly weaken because what the democrats are doing will personally and repeatedly harm them.
How many of those laid off Keystone Pipeline workers voted for Biden? How many New Mexico voters, about to join the unemployment lines voted for Biden? Not in 2024 they won’t.
The CBO just released a study that a million jobs could be lost as a result of the policies Biden is pursuing. A disastrous economy is the surest way for an incumbent administration to lose reelection. In the face of that, when the dems cheat again and ‘win’ reelection, even liberals are going to start to see that its a rigged game.
“‘I Can’t Afford To Live’: Man Panics When Insulin Skyrockets to $2,000 Under Biden Regime”
https://conservativewar.com/i-cant-afford-to-live-man-panics-when-insulin-skyrockets-to-2000-under-biden-regime/
I don’t think that the great majority of Americans are going to accept turning this nation into another Venezuela.
The leftist elite and its economic, political and cultural agents are courting a terrible reckoning.
@om:Start your own third party…
This isn’t responsive to anything I’ve said. The two-party system is really a one-party system and a third party doesn’t do anything to fix that.
Any more optimistic paths forward?.
Subsidiarity. Focus on the local and state levels of government. Work to put more power in their hands. Don’t give money to people who are not really on your side but pretend to be every two, four, or six years. Encourage efforts of your state to ignore bad Federal laws and regulations, just as happened with marijuana legalization at the state level. That sort of thing.
Cicero,
“The Democrats will remain in power forever. They intend to crush us and make us as a nation permanently financially dependent on helicopter money from DC.”
Nothing in life is forever and helicopter money from DC has an expiration date. In the end, reality wins over fantasy every time. The truism that “the best laid plans of mice and men” applies equally to the left.
The more extreme the commands issued to those National Guardsmen, the less support there will be among the 80% of the military who the democrats rightly believe to be ‘disloyal’. Rightly because the democrats have determined that 80% of the military is still loyal to their oath to defend the Constitution. A Constitution that the left’s ideological imperatives demand that they destroy.
@DNW on February 9, 2021 at 7:47 pm said:
“Monica Palmer and Hartmann obviously lacked the courage of their convictions and the rectitude to fulfill their duties in the face of harassment.
Not even a mention of their punching back when attacked. They sold out honest government at the mere threat of being marginalized.”
Because they knew government would not protect them in the face of violent assault, and further, would persecute them for protecting themselves — as it has done and is currently doing to Steve Baca, Mike Strickland, Kyle Rittenhouse, and the McCloskeys.
GB: of course nothing is forever. But a couple of generations gives them time to change everything. How long did it take Mao to destroy 5000 years of Chinese civilization?
Helicopter money from DC does not have an expiration date. The Dems just roll out another bill. Modern Monetary Theory! The Sheeple will depend on it.
The CDC just “encouraged” double masking. I see lonely drivers in their cars wearing masks and I bet they will double-mask.
“In the end” is when? Can be a long time, like a Wagnerian opera! The entire “Ring”! Ask the Venezuelans when the end of their tyranny will arrive.
DNW; Henry:
Palmer et al didn’t know what hit them. They weren’t expecting it, weren’t trained for it, didn’t have the cojones to deal with it. I don’t blame them at all, although I wish it had been otherwise. It isn’t a common thing to be able to withstand that kind of barrage, particularly for people unprepared for it, particularly when it involves threats about their own children.
Everyone needs to be a moral warrior. Not everyone is cut out for it.
Frederick:
No, the two-party system is NOT really a one-party system. Statements like that will get us nowhere. They are hyperbolic and destructive.
Some GOP politicians are indeed basically Democrats to all intents and purposes. Others are allied with Democrats in certain ways at certain times. Still others are very very different from Democrats, in a good way.
Pick and choose. Support the latter type. Of the middle ones, support the ones who are in states where it’s the best that can be done because the state is basically blue (Collins of Maine comes to mind). Primary the first type.
Support better candidates at the local level and help them rise up in the party.
Dick Illyes,
Thank you for your interesting post about secure electronic voting. I don’t understand all the tech you described, but re “armies of geeks are looking at everything in the systems being used”, aren’t those geeks maybe 70% left-leaning?
Our politics can’t be reformed if the people in general are foolish and/or corrupt.
In general, I think conservatives and patriots should try to avoid being demoralized and do whatsoever we can to push back. Also, if they are believers, to pray for our country.
@neo:Support better candidates at the local level and help them rise up in the party.
We agree on this. But if they don’t get with the program of the swamp-dwellers already there, they don’t get to rise in the national GOP.
What happened to Trump, and happened to Roy Moore, and the Tea Party, and Pork-Busters (remember that?)
When the Republicans briefly enjoyed unified control in 2017 what did they do with it?
You see what Biden is doing with it now, and what Obama did with it. What do Republicans lack in 2021 that the Democrats had in 2017?
I would argue, the will. They simply don’t seem to believe, collectively, in what they tell us they do when they want our votes and want to raise money from us. For some reason the Dems don’t have this problem. They’re not installing microchips in the Dems, not yet anyway.
What’s your explanation for the huge disparity in the two parties’ methods and outcomes? What’s your explanation for why no Republican Zoom call at 11 pm election night?
“Encourage efforts of your state to ignore bad Federal laws and regulations, just as happened with marijuana legalization at the state level. That sort of thing.” Frederick
As the left does not play by the same rules as the right… It will come as a happy surprise if the Xiden administration allows the states to ignore bad Federal laws and regulations. Would it really be a surprise to see the Feds arrest a Red State’s Governor, AG and the entire State legislature? Charging them with sedition, insurrection and treason? Nor would constitutional objections stop them, as the Senate’s current Star Chamber ‘impeachment’ i.e. persecution demonstrates.
@Geoffrey Britain:As the left does not play by the same rules as the right…
True. (The question is of course why, and I don’t believe the reason is “because people on the Right have more scruples” or “the Left doesn’t allow diversity of thought”, but I digress.)
Would it really be a surprise to see the Feds arrest a Red State’s Governor, AG and the entire State legislature?
How many people are the Feds sending to do it? Because when you arrest a non-violent person, especially one highly placed, you are just telling their lawyer to come down with them when they turn themselves in. You’re not extracting them with a SWAT team in the dead of night.
“An arrest warrant was issued on October 19, and DeLay turned himself in the next day to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office in Houston.” He was the House Majority Leader at the time.
If the state governor won’t cooperate, what’s the Feds’ next move? Sending the SWAT team is a statement that the game is changed….
A wonderful post and comments. Certainly sheds a lot of light on where we are. How to proceed is the question. Passive resistance appears to be the best strategy at this juncture. We are no longer opposing a rival political party so much as we are confronted by a new secular religion. Much of the new religion’s tenets must be taken on faith, but they interpret their faith as a belief in “science.” They interpret their beliefs as being morally sound and superior to those of the deplorable masses. They have many beliefs and they try to enforce close adherence to those beliefs. Here are the Ten Commandments as envisioned by me of this new religion of Woke Progressivism: (With apologies to Moses)
1. Thou shalt have no gods before the State.
2. Thou shalt not question the wisdom and expertise of the State.
3. Thou shalt keep holy the Capitol Buildings of the State.
4. Thou shalt honor your Woke Progressive politicians from whom all blessings flow.
5. Thou shalt know that killing of unborn children is called choice.
6. Thou shalt copulate with whomever it makes you feel good to copulate with.
7. Thou shalt not steal unless you are a victim.
8. Thou shalt not bear false witness against another except conservatives and deplorables.
9. Thou shalt know that sex is not determined by biology, but by choice.
10. Thou shalt know that all property is communal and all outcomes must be equal.
Their focus is entirely on constructing what they see as a more perfect world. What they fail to see, as Neo has pointed out, is that the world they want to construct will inevitably be worse than the world as it is. And that utopias can only be constructed by viciously suppressing human nature. That they inevitably must use force to achieve their ends, is their Achilles heel. Having half the population passively resisting provides them with a huge problem. When I was in Vietnam a few years ago, I saw this in action. The Vietnamese in the south of the country continue to hate the Communists in Hanoi. They do all they can to undermine them (such as ignoring regulations they don’t like or slow walking administrative procedures) without bringing retribution. Vietnam is still an ostensibly Communist country, but is slowly becoming more democratic and free market. Passive resistance is working.
Keep the faith. No not the Woke Progressive faith, but faith in the wisdom of our Founding Fathers. Let the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the Ten Commandments, and the Golden Rule be our guides.
Fredrick:
If you would check the clichés ( it’s all one uniparty, GOP is same as Dems,, etc.) that serve just to get your comment noticed (?), and instead focus on specifics for example:
“Subsidiarity. Focus on the local and state levels of government. Work to put more power in their hands …” it might go better. But waving the “bloody shirt” feels beter?
Frederick:
There are quite a few fighters who are not with the RINO program who are serving in Congress or as governors of red states. If a candidate is good enough, it can happen. You keep acting like the RINOs in the GOP have all the control. They have some of course, but not all.
Republicans are not as obedient as Democrats. That’s one reason they’re harder to organize. Nor are they as fanatic. That’s another. You don’t know what 11 PM Zoom calls happen on the GOP side, either. I agree that they’re nowhere near as effective. I also have written a post about how the GOP fought against the pre-election lawfare by the Democrats. There was a lot more opposition mounted than most people think, and some was successful. But they were fighting a court system predisposed to favor the relaxation of the voting rules, and to buy the Democratic argument about COVID safety and voting inclusivity. The GOP was fighting an uphill battle compared to the Democrats.
Nor have I ever said the GOP is a lean mean fighting machine. Far from it. But that doesn’t mean they don’t fight, and that doesn’t mean that some members aren’t really good fighters.
As for what the GOP did when it was in charge of both houses at the beginning of Trump’s term, I have written about that, too, most recently here. Also read this.
Geoffrey Britain:
The Feds may have to get past the Red state’s State Police, or say the Texas Rangers, National Guard, and the proles, and of course the local branch of the ACLU (well maybe not the ACLU).
But of course the Feds are all powerful and totally competent. 🙂
neo on February 10, 2021 at 2:29 pm said:
DNW; Henry:
Then don’t ask for the job.
DNW:
My point is that they didn’t know that was part of the job description. It never had been before. Previously it was a simple, cushy job with very little controversy and little public scrutiny. Now people should realize it takes courage and fortitude. But when these people took the job they had no idea it would entail what it ended up entailing.
And of course it is easy to “could have, should have, would have” a situation you aren’t in. Sometimes people rise above and exceed their expectations but generally people have to be trained and motivated to perform well in dangerous or threatening situations.
@neo:I have written about that, too, most recently here. Also read this.
I’ve been reading you a long time, including these posts. What you say there seems to you an explanation, but to me it isn’t. Why does one party let one or two “mavericks” bring their agenda to a halt, but the other doesn’t? It’s always someone in the McCain role (looks like Mr Romney is shaping up to be that). Who is the Dem equivalent? I don’t think they have one, and I’m not sure you think they have one, and the question is why. What does Bernie Sanders hold up?
Republicans are not as obedient as Democrats. That’s one reason they’re harder to organize.
I think this is part of your answer, but I don’t believe that one side (to oversimplify) is really “better” people; though it certainly helps “our” side that we believe so (and the same thing is said of “ours” by “theirs”.) I think both sides are large and diverse coalitions of contentious individuals, and representing voters who are large and diverse coalitions of contentious individuals. So why can one side move in lock step and the other not? What’s the fundamental difference?
I’m just not seeing the fundamental difference and that is why I am starting to believe in the “uniparty”. Whatever differences they have with each other are dwarfed by their similarities when compared with their constituents. To use Douglas Adams’ metaphor, “lizard people”.
It was on immigration that I first started to realize this. How can both sides of Congress be so far out of step with their voters: R voters and D voters are mostly in the same place on it? Why do they keep coming up with fake non-solutions like E-Verify and never a serious system like Canada’s? For all their diversity, the Congressmen of both parties always land in the lax regimen favored by their clients as opposed to what is favored by the voters.
As for judges, judges are window dressing according to my theory. Nice to have, but the primary objective is to direct the flow of tax money to favored clients. Tax cuts go along perfectly with that, plenty of favored clients get on board with that and they almost never go away when the other party takes power. But changing Obamacare would have upset those favored clients, so McCain was allowed to block it…
J.J.:
Damn fine statement!
Fredreick:
Captain Obvious here, consider one party has a different ideology than the other. What could that be I wonder? Consider that one party has the levers and tools of media, culture, and academia to enforce conformance to Party goals.
Who exactly are the favored clients of the social disrupters; trans activists, race hate mongers, red-green Gaia worshipers, or the favored Religion of Pieces? They are all in these diverse and sundry exploits for money? Otay, ‘splain away.
Or just say the parties are both the same.
Frederick:
I answered that in a previous post or comment, too. Don’t have time to look for it now, but the gist of it is that the left are collectivists, willing to swallow their own convictions or individual differences for the good of the party. The right is different.
The left may be more willing to use threats to twist the arms of its members, too. They fight much dirtier.
It sounds as though you’d like the right to be more collectivist and more dirty, too. And I suppose that would indeed make them more united and more effective. But it would probably make them a lot more totalitarian, as well.
Neo — well, the American Revolutionaries had their Gadsden flag and the snake.
The message was there in symbols as the snake; spoken and written above elsewhere: Divided we are conquered. United, we could win self-government and political independence..
What unified this motley collection of colonial interests was the realisation that separated, they would surely be defeated by the greatest army of the biggest Empire in the world.
Today, there’s nothing analogous to that.
@neo:It sounds as though you’d like the right to be more collectivist and more dirty, too.
I would not. But I find the story that they would do what we wanted, what they promise us, but they can’t because they are just too pure, it’s a little hard for me to believe.
@om:Who exactly are the favored clients of the social disrupters; trans activists, race hate mongers, red-green Gaia worshipers, or the favored Religion of Pieces?
You think those people run the Democratic party? They’re the foot soldiers. They are the ones that Bernie is dangled in front of every four years.
They ARE the favored clients. Their non-profits get to collect your tax money and they spend that money to deliver votes to their patrons…. who they never give up on because they’re sure to get Bernie in next time if they continue to go along.
Just like Republicans will repeal Obamacare or build the wall if they can just figure out what to do with John McCain, er, Susan Collins, er, Lisa Murkowski…
>J.J.:
>Damn fine statement!
Ditto!
Patrick Byrne has been writing up his time in pursuit of fraud voting info. In his Feb 4th post, he says two remarkable and deeply distressing things, confirming that he was aware of Chinese printed ballots in Fulton, Co, GA (replete with photos and video), and extras getting shredded (or recycled) allegedly by someone paying with a Dominion CC. And the DHS and FBI involved, but Chief of Staff Mark Meadows getting the investigation to be buried.
Then Byrne says something more distressing, and something I’ve never heard of before (nor mentioned here): a Deep State threat on Trump’s life.
“In those days of swimming around with people who were in various proximities to the President, I was told something by someone very much in Trump’s inner circle. What I was told was this: Melania had been warned by a government official that if Trump served another term he would be JFK’ed. It may even have been someone in the Secret Service itself, in a ‘We will not be able to protect him’ sense. The threat included another family member as well, per the telling. I find it hard to believe that anyone in the Secret Service itself would ever say that, but the source of the information to me had otherwise been blemishless, and the claim was that whoever (perhaps Secret Service, perhaps someone else) had said this to Melania, it was someone from whom such a claim would be taken seriously. Melania was begging Donald not to fight, and simply to concede and get out of Washington with his family.”
https://www.deepcapture.com/2021/02/how-djt-lost-the-white-house-chapter-4-the-christmas-doldrums-december-23-noon-january-6/
It’s tough to characterise this as anything other than a Deep State threat against the sitting President.
It certainly fits in this Time mag stolen election thread. But does anyone have anything more to add (or subtract) from this?
Threats are easily made. But one so high up? Then circulated?
It’s tough to know if it is no more than a rumour or not.
If people will not name names, then their “information” is worthless … or they personally are.
If supposedly patriotic citizens in government know these things, and are too goddamned cowardly or self-interested to come out with it in public, then what does that say about the mettle and motivations of those who have sought government employment and careers?
I hope that the answer is that it is a matter of unemployable Internet gossip whores spreading rumors for clicks and attention, rather than the alternative: That we – generally – have degenerated into a race of moral cowards and imbeciles.
@DNW:I hope that the answer is that it is a matter of unemployable Internet gossip whores spreading rumors for clicks and attention, rather than the alternative: That we – generally – have degenerated into a race of moral cowards and imbeciles.
Pretty sure that “and” is in play here.
@DNW:
It’s hard to know. There are plenty of blowhards and grifters on this side of politics and lurking around edges of Trump Bandwagon. Hell, it’s not as if Trump himself is not a Giant Blowhard and a very successful Grifter. (Commenters, save it. Nobody voted him in for who he IS — they wanted him for what he IS NOT — anyone with above room temperature IQ anyway.)
Disclaimer Aside, just how many of your family members are you prepared to sacrifice for the Common Good?
Personal Courage is all well and good. When the resources of a continental power, let alone global superpower are in play, just how many holds do you think are going to be barred?
You could have the IT resources of just about any billionaire short of a Bezos, and if the hard men of the agencies decided that you or a relative is going to go down for one of the few remaining taboo crimes which the slightest rumour of which would destroy your life (Paging Mister Epstein) — there’s nothing on Earth could stop them fitting you up.
The calculus totally favours TPTB until game kicks off.
DNW: “ (A)If people will not name names, then their “information” is worthless … or they personally are.
“(B)If supposedly patriotic citizens in government know these things, and are too goddamned cowardly or self-interested to come out with it in public, then what does that say about the mettle and motivations of those who have sought government employment and careers?
“(C) I hope that the answer is that it is a matter of unemployable Internet gossip whores spreading rumors for clicks and attention, rather than the alternative: (D) That we – generally – have degenerated into a race of moral cowards and imbeciles.”
Frederick adds “and” to C and D (even if C is leaning on B).
But to point A, this ought to be our default position.
Yet here and a year ago last December, and by reputation, Byrnes may make a sensational claim and often later reveals his sources (unlike much so-called media today).
If the claim is more substantive, I bet that others come forward, in time.
Or at least others with an account like Byrnes will.
None of which proves the claim. Only that relevance and facts will filter through about the startling thought.
I would have dismissed this during the naughts. No more, not after the past five years.
Fredrick:
Foot soldiers in the world of Fredrick are an Assistant Secretary of HHS (trans), Ibrahim X Kendi (critical race theory), AOC (aka AOSmollet), Pressley (Dem rep of race), Ilhan Omar and Rancid Tlaib (Religion of Pieces). These foot soldiers somehow have persuaded Creepy Joe to issue executive orders about trannys in schools and in school sports, a 60 day DOD stand down to consider white supremacy in the armed forces. Who again is in charge of the Democrats (aka the same as the Republicans)?
I’m asks “ Who again is in charge of the Democrats (aka the same as the Republicans)?”
The oligarchs, globalists and the CCP. (But I could be wrong about the order of the latter two.)
It appears that Barry M has posted a link to a blogger [Apelbaum] who has taken the time to actually look into the kinds of questions which I was complaining Mike Lindell had not asked during the presentation of his ” absolute proof” video.
Apelbaum does not address Lindell per se, but rather the originators of what he argues is a clumsily constricted con by well known fraudsters who could not even be troubled to get the ISPs right.
Neither does Apelbaum definitively address the reasons persons would perpetrate such a con, mooting several possibilities. As Lindell indicated he had paid for his ” investigation” out of his own pocket, an inference becomes obvious.
I spend very little time with my computer security software and features, but the so-called expert’s haphazard use of the proper nomenclature, and a visible error of omission right at the top of the misnamed “chart”, presented credibility problems right from the outset for that section of Lindell’s presentation.
Thanks Barry, for your important contribution.
https://www.thenewneo.com/2021/02/10/a-few-more-points-about-that-time-report/#comment-2539141
@om:Foot soldiers in the world of Fredrick
All the people you listed are people to whom bones are thrown. Kendi is a professor who gets paid a lot to say little, he holds no office. AOC, Omar, Tlaib are backbench Congressmen who make a lot of noise and get a lot of press; like Bernie Sanders they are there to keep the progressives voting Dem.
I suggest you look up “kayfabe”. Your list of heels and faces that you seem to think are in charge reads to me as though you’re saying that Roman Reigns and Drew Macintyre are feared through the WWE.
Aren’t you skeptical at all about what you read? Why are these the faces plastered all over the news? Who wants you to believe that and why?
Who again is in charge of the Democrats (aka the same as the Republicans)?
People like Nancy Pelosi who have the power to direct tax money, and the “oligarchs and globalists” to whom she and the others like her direct that money. Pay attention to the people who get paid, and the people who do the paying, and not the heels and faces in the latest smackdown.
Fredrick:
I’m very skeptical about what you write.
Funny that those EOs that Creepy Jo signed didn’t go through Nancy Pelosi, who is in charge after all. LOL
Those who ride the tiger often find they are not really in charge of where the tiger takes them.
But the Democrats and Republicans are just the same, that’s why we need the Party Of Fredrick (POF). 🙂
@om:those EOs that Creepy Jo signed didn’t go through Nancy Pelosi
How do you know they didn’t? They went through someone, they didn’t come out of Biden’s head.
who is in charge after all. LOL
“People like Nancy Pelosi”, “the people who do the paying”. She’s not the only one, obviously.
that’s why we need the Party Of Fredrick (POF)
Is today Opposite Day? A sham national party system is not fixed by more parties, and these aren’t my words so I assume you’re just trying to troll.
A sham national party system is fixed by waking up to the reality of where the power is, and by whom and for whom that power is exercised, instead of being distracted by a theater presented to you by people that you know for a fact have been trying to deceive you for decades.
Power has to be opposed by other power, and I keep recommending that you find that in your state and local officials. Their party labels might be more or less meaningful but I guarantee that they have more in common with you than the swamp denizens in Washington DC, and they are a lot easier to get rid of when they won’t listen.
OK Fredrick prove the negative about Nancy Pelosi. Did she sign the EOs? It could have been the work of Lyn Cheney after all. It’s put up or shut up time.
Indeed POF is trolling you, you are quick today. But the POF is truly a sham.
DNW, yer most welcome.
That guy is pretty incredible. Exceptionally thorough and a genius…so it seems to me.
(Fortunately, he’s on the side of good…)
@om:Did she sign the EOs?
Presidents sign EOs, but there are whole teams involved in drafting them… so you’re moving the goalposts now. Those EOs were prepared long ago and seen by a lot of people before being put in Biden’s hands to sign them.
Indeed POF is trolling you
Well, good of you to come out and say it. Keep believing that WWE smackdown is real and go on letting them pick your pockets I guess.
Fredrick:
I’m trolling you now with this link, here is the POF:
https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN2AB07P
But POF aside, did you ever actually wrestle, you know, the sport. I did. So try another line.
So you admitted that Nancy didn’t sign the EOs, so “we” are making progress. “Long ago in legislature far away there was Nancy and her crack team that decided not to write laws but to draft Executive Orders ….” Ok, that works for you. It couldn’t have been Creepy Joe’s crack team, or team on crack/meth? And who again is moving goal posts?
DNW; Barry Meislin:
That is similar to what Barnes on the Frei and Barnes podcasts that I sometimes post has been saying since months ago: that the conspiracy/Dominion stuff, especially that involving other countries was a con designed to distract and make the lawyers and others who fell for it look foolish. Fairly early on (but not quite early enough) the actual Trump lawyers dissociated from it, although others like Powell succumbed and have been greatly damaged. Barnes smelled a rat from the start and got some flak for it from some listeners, but he was correct.
QAnon kills, people and reputations. Ashli Babbitt RIP.
Sometimes thoroughness and conscientiousness can make up some of the lost ground we who lack genius have to contend with.
But any of us, with even a rudimentary understanding gained from having our own websites and maybe merchant accounts, and having had to do the work of registering and searching our own domains, could have done some of the rudimentary checking that Apelbaum did. Is he correct in not only his observations, but in the surmise he has drawn from them? I do not know for sure; but it certainly raises red flags the size of main sails.
But here is what I do know, and I think you and most here would agree: There is no god###ned excuse for a professional blogger on the right not going through the basic steps Aplebaum took before breathlessly posting up some [what may have been] click bait garbage.
There is no excuse, no excuse at all for an habitual lack of due diligence in “reporting” ostensible facts to others.
What possible purpose does it serve? It is in fact destructive at every turn.
The basic principles of historical reportage are drilled into every liberal arts kid who has taken historiography 110. [ Well, maybe not exactly, since that course is often a 450 and above level course taken to qualify for the major …]
In any event, some level of critical ability should have by now been cultivated by every college graduate now over 40. You don’t need a shelf full of logic texts, or to have made a special study of Collingwood (there you go huxley) in order to do just a little fact checking,
But apparently, as Neo notes, Andrea Mitchell, and many others supposedly on “our side”, just cannot pass up any chance whatsoever to excitedly j#ck o## in public.