Election irregularities, election fraud, past and present

The New Neo Posted on by

First we have a report from Wisconsin about the 2020 election:

Explosive revelations in the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau’s report on the 2020 presidential election confirm what many in the key swing state have long suspected: Those tasked with administering the election willfully ignored and openly violated state law…

Auditors reviewed 14,710 absentee ballots cast in 29 municipalities across the state, including nine of the 10 cities in which the highest numbers of absentee ballots were cast. Stunningly, the City of Madison refused to allow the LAB to physically handle its ballots. Madison, Wisconsin’s capital and the most heavily Democratic city in the state, was the primary reason Joe Biden won Dane County over Donald Trump, as it voted for Biden by a whopping 75.7 to 22.9 percent.

The review of ballot certificates revealed that 1,022 of the ballots reviewed (representing 6.9 percent) “had partial witness addresses because they did not have one or more components of a witness address, such as a street name, municipality, state, and zip code.” Fifteen of them (0.1 percent) “did not have a witness address in its entirety,” while eight (less than 0.1 percent) “did not have a witness signature,” and three (less than 0.1 percent) “did not have a voter’s signature.”…

Using the LAB’s numbers, it may be reasonably estimated that across the state 135,512 absentee ballot certificates only had a partial witness address, 2,002 did not have a witness address at all, 1,068 did not have a witness signature, and 401 did not have a voter signature. Biden defeated Trump in Wisconsin by just 20,682 votes.

Much much more at the link.

There are a lot of ways that elections can be fraudulent and/or can raise a strong suspicion of fraud and/or significant error – which in some ways is just as bad because if faith in the integrity of elections is undermined it hurts the entire country. One way is by passing election rules that give ample opportunity for fraud. Another way is by skirting more stringent and protective rules by not enforcing them. Another way is outright fraud: the manufacture of fake votes or the purposeful counting of fake votes.

The Wisconsin audit illustrates how hard – actually, impossible – it is to know ex post facto whether enough errors and/or fraud existed to change the outcome of an election, especially a close one. And that’s what the fraudsters and those who relax the rules are banking on.

NOTE: To bring us to the present, we have New Jersey and its history of voting fraud.

With Biden, is it door number one, two, or three?

The New Neo Posted on by

Door number one: he’s lying.
Door number two: he forgot.
Door number three: he was never told.

Any of those could be the case with Biden at any point on any subject. But in this case I think it was actually door number three.

Remember that story about the huge settlements being discussed for illegal “migrants” whose families were separated? It stirred up a lot of outrage, and rightly so.

Yesterday Biden said the story was “garbage” and “not true.”

Today the ACLU (which has been in charge of many of the lawsuits involved) issued a statement:

President Biden may not have been fully briefed about the actions of his very own Justice Department as it carefully deliberated and considered the crimes committed against thousands of families separated from their children as an intentional governmental policy.

I love that delicate construction: “may not have been fully briefed.” I wonder how many other things Biden “may not” be “fully briefed” about.

On the Rittenhouse trial opening statements – plus new video footage

The New Neo Posted on by

The Rittenhouse prosecution has a tough fact situation to deal with, but it really all depends on how the jury ultimately sees it:

And a new video of Rittenhouse and others on that night in Kenosha, August 2020, has surfaced (hat tip: commenter Barry Meislin):

About the video:

During pretrial motions, defense attorneys complained that they’d just been notified of the existence of the FBI thermal imaging videos. Prosecutors said they’d given defense attorneys a head’s up in September, about a month before the trial started on November 1.

The video looks like many you may have seen from war zones, as pilots with laser-guided munitions attempt to find terrorists, or the way the Border Patrol looks for those white-on-black images of illegal drug mules making their way over the southern border.

The video demonstrates fairly clearly that the first person shot that night, Joseph Rosenbaum, appeared to lie in wait for Rittenhouse – hiding behind a car – and that when the teen jogged past the car looking for the burning cars he’d come to put out, the 36-year-old man came up from behind, chased, and lunged at Rittenhouse.

It then shows Rittenhouse apparently trapped as Rosenbaum lunges–and that’s when the 17-year-old fired four shots in a span of .76 seconds, killing Rosenbaum. The prosecution claimed in court that the kill shot was fired into Rosenbaum’s back and plans to make this a big point in the state’s case…

Ziminski was positioned and fired the gun into the air behind Rittenhouse as the 17-year-old ran away from Rosenbaum. Just a thought, but if some crazy guy’s chasing you and you hear a gun shot, during a riot you just might be in harm’s way.

More at the link.

So, what about the whole election cheating thing?

The New Neo Posted on by

Commenter “MBunge” writes:

The all-around execrable Erick Erickson has a tweet out saying “See, all you stupid Trumpers! Elections aren’t rigged so shut up about 2020!”

Youngkin won while all the questioning of 2020 is going on. It didn’t hurt him. It didn’t cost him the election. Who knows? Trump continuing to make a stink about 2020 may have scared the Democrats off trying to steal Virginia.

My take on it is – as I’ve said many many times – that the basic issue is the changing of the election rules that had several effects. The first was the pre-election undermining of trust in the integrity of elections, and the second was the strong possibility of resultant cheating that by its very nature almost certainly could never be proven even if true. That’s a recipe for disaster.

The Virginia election can tell us nothing about what happened regarding cheating in the 2020 election. Heck, it can’t even tell us all that much about cheating in yesterday’s election, except that if cheating did occur on the part of Democrats it wasn’t enough to change the winner.

Election rules and their enforcement are the keys, and each state is different in that regard (HR1, if passed, would have changed that, but thankfully we’ve dodged that bullet for now). Some states are very lax and some are still pretty strict. In order for cheating to be effective in a statewide or national election (except in the closest of races), a couple of things would ordinarily have to be present: somewhat of a swing state with lax voting rules and rural red areas but deep blue cities in which the voting apparatus can be rather easily controlled by the Democrat machine.

I’m not at all sure that Virginia ever met those characteristics – at least, during the 2020 election I don’t recall the state being on the list of those with alleged cheating by Democrats. I’d have to do an in-depth study of Virginia’s voting laws and how they are administered to know whether there was much of a possibility of cheating there, and I certainly haven’t researched that. If anyone has any light to shed, feel free. But again, what happened in one state tells us little about what happened in another state at another time.

I’ve also said (but it bears repeating) that I don’t think we’ll ever know whether cheating made a difference in 2020. I don’t think it’s possible to know, and that’s part of the problem because it’s certainly plausible. We do know, however, about many of the influential and far-reaching lies that were told by the left about the right, with the aid of the MSM, and how social media cooperated in the blocking of the voices of the right. That undoubtedly had a huge influence, and it is almost certain it will continue.

Reflections on yesterday’s elections

The New Neo Posted on by

Well, well, well.

Can we relax now? Certainly not.

But we can breathe a sigh of relief. Virginia has decided that what the left was dishing out was just too poisonous a meal to digest, New Jersey is thinking about it, and Minneapolis doesn’t really want to descend into a state of anarchy just yet.

I hadn’t followed the candidates for Virginia’s Lieutenant Governor, but here’s the winner and the Democrats might consider her a dangerous harbinger of demographic changes in the Republican Party:

Instead, though, they seem to be arguing from the old “Republicans are irredeemably racist” playbook. Perhaps it’s habit. Perhaps they correctly figure they have no other arguments left. Perhaps some of them even believe what they say; I certainly know plenty of their viewers who believe it.

Here’s a good rejoinder:

So, why have the Democrats gone so far to the left the last couple of years? Didn’t they think there would be a backlash? Or did they think the public really would come right along with them? Or did they think they could always cheat their way to power despite offending and alarming and insulting such a large swatch of people? Or did they think the MSM pulling for them and lying for them would be enough to ensure victory?

And going forward, will they pretend to be more moderate in hopes of winning in 2022, and then plan to pull a hard left switcheroo after the win? Is the public finally onto their game and cannot be fooled, or will they fall for it again?

Open thread 11/3/21

The New Neo Posted on by

I don’t like this sort of music at all, although I’m aware it takes enormous skill. But this is an absolutely astounding human story, and I hope to watch the documentary Beato talks about here:

RIP.

It’s Election Day [BUMPED UP]

The New Neo Posted on by

Especially in Virginia. But also elsewhere.

Here’s a thread to discuss it.

UPDATE 10:30 PM:

I realized something today that I hadn’t fully appreciated till now, which is that I have some sort of PTSD about elections in general as a result of 2020. It wasn’t just the November count and the roller coaster experience as state after state faded away in the wee hours of the morning and for the next couple of days. It also included what happened in the Georgia runoffs later on. The entire thing felt like some sort of Greek tragedy in which you know the ending but have to watch the whole awful thing unfold – only this time, minus the poetry.

Somewhere along the line – even before that election – I had lost trust in election integrity as the rules kept changing and the opportunities for cheating multiplied. After that election, no lead seemed safe. I hate to be this way, but that’s where I’m at, and that’s what I bring to the Virginia election.

However, with all those caveats, the news so far is encouraging, and that is good. But I’ll only believe it if it holds to the end.

Taiwan and the chips

The New Neo Posted on by

This is an old story, which appeared in January of 2021. But it’s taken on even more significance now, because there’s so much talk of Taiwan being vulnerable due to Biden’s weakness and inability/unwillingness to defend US interests.

An excerpt:

As China pushes the world to avoid official dealings with Taiwan, leaders across the globe are realizing just how dependent they’ve become on the island democracy.

Taiwan, which China regards as a province, is being courted for its capacity to make leading-edge computer chips. That’s mostly down to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest foundry and go-to producer of chips for Apple Inc. smartphones, artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.

Taiwan’s role in the world economy largely existed below the radar, until it came to recent prominence as the auto industry suffered shortfalls in chips used for everything from parking sensors to reducing emissions.

I have little doubt that there are a lot of things that exist below the radar and of which we should be aware. Any important product or service that isn’t geographically diversified and is in the hands of any nation that could fall into the hands of a potential enemy (or certainly rival) should be red-flagged.

It’s not like I have a solution – in fact, until today I was barely aware of the problem. But my guess is that a lot of you have a lot to say on the matter, so feel free.

“Feel free” – those words have taken on even more meaning lately, haven’t they?

So, what did that Southwest pilot actually say?

The New Neo Posted on by

You may have noticed that I haven’t yet written about the Southwest pilot who supposedly said, “Let’s go, Brandon” over the flight intercom. That’s partly because there’s been so much news so much more pressing, but also because I was waiting for some sort of convincing confirmation of the story.

I’m still waiting.

My gut told me there was good reason to hesitate, mainly because it was an AP reporter saying it had happened. That’s a sorry reflection on the fact that the press has richly earned my doubt. And where were all the passengers who supposedly “gasped” and then came out of the woodwork to corroborate the reporter’s story?

So now we see this:

As it happened, Associated Press reporter Colleen Long was on the flight, and was even working on a story about the phrase…

That’s already interesting, because our perceptions of what we hear can be distorted by what’s on our mind at the time, especially if the sound isn’t crystal clear, and airplanes are not exactly the place where people tend to hear speech that’s crystal clear.

…[T]his Southwest pilot, who is now facing getting suspended or fired, or worse, subjected to the treatment that the Left reserves for dissenters, may not even have said “Let’s Go Brandon” at all. Audio of his in-flight announcement was posted on TikTok as a video with subtitles.

While the subtitles say “Let’s Go Brandon,” the audio only has the pilot saying “Let’s go Bra—” before it cuts off. Could the pilot have been an Atlanta Braves fan and was saying “Let’s go, Braves”? The TikTok video was posted on October 11, while the Braves were in the National League Division Series against the Milwaukee Brewers. Maybe the entire pandemonium over this pilot is based on a mishearing. Or something worse: Colleen Long says she heard the pilot say this on October 29, 18 days after the audio was posted. The plot thickens.

You can see the same story here.

Southwest is supposedly investigating, but will we ever hear much more about it, or has the story already served its purpose? Like the story of the border patrol whipping the Haitians, and the investigation about that – one announced on September 21 and which was supposed to be completed in days, and for which we’ve never even gotten an update?

For the record, though, in case the Southwest story turns out to be true – I don’t think pilots should be making any political statements, even as a joke. But I think a simple reprimand would do, especially for something so mild.

But practically nothing seems simple or easy these days because the woke virtue-signaling cancel culture squad never rests. It’s ever-vigilant, ever-ready to to believe the worst of the right and even of anyone on the left who dares to agree with the right even one time even on one issue. Or, if necessary, the woke squad is ready to imagine or even make an incident up that it sees as politically helpful.

It’s roundup time again

The New Neo Posted on by

Some days it just seems like roundups are the only way to handle the cascade of news. So here we go…

(1) Tomorrow is the Virginia gubernatorial election, which seems especially important because the right actually has a chance. But modern-day voting policies in a state such as Virginia can make all the difference in the world for the left:

So how do Democrats plan to ensure a McAuliffe win and a subsequent retention of power in the state and U.S. Senate? By using the same tactic they used in the 2020 national contest: profligate mail-in voting and fake grassroots get-out-the-vote efforts funding by philanthropies and wealthy leftists, a strategy revealed through Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s gift to the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL).

(2) Speaking of the left and voting, there’s Wisconsin, in which the 2020 election saw subversions of Wisconsin voting law regarding residents of nursing homes. For example:

Luell also excerpted details from a document the WEC apparently distributed to nursing homes throughout the state. That document, entitled “Absentee Voting at Care Facilities in 2020,” informed “care facility administrator[s] and staff member[s]” that they could, among other things, “assist residents in filling out their ballots or certification envelops,” in express violation of Section 6.875.

Throughout the press conference, Luell made election law minutia understandable with the personal element, beginning with the fact that he launched his investigation based on a complaint his office received from “Judy.” As Luell explained, Judy discovered her mother had purportedly voted by absentee ballot in the November 3, 2020 election, even though “Shirley” had died on October 9, 2020…

In addition to Judy, the children of six other residents of Ridgewood Care Facility expressed concerns about a ballot cast in their parents’ names. The patients’ children detailed to the sheriff’s office their parent’s lack of mental capacity and other facts indicating the votes did not represent the freewill of their parents, such as the difficulty in convincing one mother to sign any documents and one father’s statement that if he couldn’t vote in person, he did not want to vote. Also, none of those other six residents had voted in the 2016 presidential election, or in any election since 2012.

More at the link.

(3) Here’s what may have happened with the shooting by Alec Baldwin, from someone who seems to know a lot about the gun involved and what Baldwin is alleged to have been doing with it when it went off. An excerpt:

The actor, as reported, was sitting in the pew of the church, practicing. He was trying mightily to get the draw-cock rhythm down and that was his focus, though dangerously adding the element of speed. It never occurred to him that the gun was loaded. (Rule No. 1: All guns are always loaded.) He was unaware that his muzzle had drifted onto the camera crew where Ms. Hutchins and director Joel Souza were crouched. (Rule No. 2: Never let your muzzle cover anything you aren’t willing to destroy.)

In practicing the draw-while-cocking integration, his index finger had wandered onto the trigger, depressing it just far enough to bypass the cocking function. (Rule No. 3: Don’t touch the trigger until you’re ready to shoot.) Struggling awkwardly, he released the hammer under the impression he had cocked the pistol. He hadn’t. The hammer flew forward. The gun fired (Rule No. 4: Always know what your target is.) It is quite possible that absent knowledge of these mechanics, he still believes the gun fired on its own, out of some defect. The defect was his.

The writer also discusses the fact that Baldwin had little to no experience with firearms even as an actor.

(4) “Migration Crisis Overview: Americanists vs. Transformationists“:

Most significantly, operational control of the border is no longer in American hands. Judd declared on television on April 10, “I was asked last night who is controlling the border? Is it President Biden? Is it Kamala Harris, who is it? And my answer was, it’s the cartels. The cartels control the border now. It’s not even the Border Patrol. It’s not even the U.S. government.”

(5) Jen Psaki tests positive for COVID. I think, based on a combination of her age and vaccinated status, plus the odds in general, that she’ll be absolutely fine. But her positive test is another example of the fact that even the vaccinated can be infected though often symptom-free or with very mild symptoms (she reportedly has very mild symptoms), and that the persecution of the unvaccinated is an unwarranted power play. Anyone can get this thing, and the risk the unvaccinated pose is mainly to themselves, if that (many are already immune because they’re already had COVID, and I don’t think they pose a risk to anyone at all).