Yesterday, I had much to say about the insane Texas case filed by Ken Paxton (who clearly covets a Trump pardon). But the words wouldn't come. Ever have one of those bad dreams where you feel a need to scream but you can't make a sound? I felt muffled by my own disgust, like a man trying to sing through a mouthful of vomit.
Everyone on librul teevee keeps telling us that Paxton's bizarre trick won't work, yet no-one quite believes these blandishments. Admit it: You feel fear. We all do. Maybe it's not a rational fear, but we're feeling it nonetheless.
What unnerves many is the widespread nature of this delusion. Trump has taught us, once again, that a lie repeated become truth in the minds of many. Even if the Supreme Court refuses to hear the case -- a decision which could come within hours -- a ludicrously false narrative has captured the imagination of half the nation.
Hate to say it, but Erick-Woods Erickson has compiled the best brief rejoinder to this legal laughingstock:
Let me explain just how absurd this case is:
Texas can cite no cases at all in its claim that it has standing to sue the states for the administration of their own internal elections.
Texas alleges the other states changed election laws due to the pandemic without the legislature’s blessing. You know one state not being sued that did that? Texas.
The states allege it is illegal to count ballots received after election day. Several of the states making that claim also do that.
Their expert argues a sign of voter fraud is that it is not likely Trump 2016 voters would vote for Biden in 2020. The expert also uses dubious statistical modeling comparing Clinton to Biden.
The Missouri amicus all but says they don’t necessarily agree with Texas’s legal statements, but the case is so important the Supreme Court should hear it.
Texas could not even get its Solicitor General — the man who argues on behalf of the state before the Supreme Court — to sign onto the lawsuit. That’s how frivolous it is.
This will persuade the fool and the gullible, but these are not meritorious arguments, particularly when many of the states on the plaintiff’s side of the lawsuit have done similar things and thus have unclean hands.
Here's my big idea: One of the blue states should respond in kind. An AG in (say) California or New York or Maryland should "pull a Paxton." There is evidence that various red states using ES&S devices rigged the election to favor the Republicans (not just Trump). This evidence is far more persuasive than anything in Paxton's pack of prevarications.
Texas, for example. The following comes from Patrick Svitek of the Texas Tribune:
Trump has won Zapata County — just north of the Rio Grande Valley along the border — by 6 points, 53% to 47%, per SOS results.Now that's evidence of election fraud. Maybe not conclusive evidence, maybe not the kind of evidence your geometry teacher demanded of you, but certainly better evidence than anything you'll get from Kenny Paxton.
Last two presidential elections there were Clinton +33 and Obama +43.
This is a small county, but that's obviously a swing. Vote counts:
2020 — Trump: 2,032 | Biden: 1,820
2016 — Clinton: 2,063 | Trump: 1,029
2012 — Obama: 2,527 | Romney: 997
A writer named Alison Greene has been looking at the situation in Kentucky. Yes, Kentucky. She has done some detailed digging, and has found evidence that someone "salted" the results to insure a McConnell victory. Her thread is long but fascinating: I am giving you much of it, though not all of it. Go here for the full experience.
On my continuing quest to understand how Mitch McConnell, who had an approval rating of 18%, managed to win reelection by 57%, I dug even deeper🤔
The deeper I dig, the more I find the numbers out of Kentucky hard to swallow🙄
Here's a follow up on Kentucky's election results👇My previous thread noted how many Kentucky Dems voted Republican. Folks said "This is just Kentucky voters"
But if Kentucky voters typically cross party lines it also provides cover to easily hide vote flipping. And HUGE numbers of Dems voted Republican.
Take Breathitt County👇In Breathitt Mitch got 234% more votes than they had registered Republicans
Amys votes only represent 17% of registered Dems
They'll still say "Its just Kentucky. Look at voting history"
Well, HISTORY shows 2 counties who NEVER before voted for Mitch gave him BIG wins in 2020👇Mitch NEVER won in Elliott or Wolfe Kentucky.
But in 2020 he won these counties with mind boggling results🧐
WOLFE COUNTY
Mitch Votes=1912
Registered GOP=943
McGrath Votes=945
Registered Dems=4527
ELLIOTT COUNTY
Mitch=1958
Registered GOP=860
McGrath=868
Registered Dems=4276And since my original thread on Kentucky I've found even more anomalies. To further verify Kentuckys data I also looked at Dems numbers to see if their votes made sense
THEORY: When a Kentucky Dem voted for Amy they also voted for Biden
But thats NOT quite what the data shows👇Out of 120 counties in Kentucky, Amy McGrath got MORE votes than Joe Biden in 119 counties.Did Amy get more votes than Biden cause more folks voted in the Senate race?
In 99% of the counties it appears voters went into the voting booth and voted for Amy McGrath AND Trump?
Really?
A Trump voter who then votes for the Democratic woman candidate?
Huh🤔
Nope
550 more people voted in the Presidential race.
Senatorial Votes: 2,134,446
Presidential Votes: 2,134,996
Btw, 550 is a tiny & oddly round number🤔
(especially as compared to even smaller states)
I only had one explanation...the whole country watched the #MoscowMitch race but noone expected Biden to beat Trump in KY
So IF they manipulated votes did they siphon off slightly MORE votes from Biden to Trump?
But I think Dominion is a distraction👇It so happens that Kentucky didn't use Dominion machines. 20% of Kentucky's counties used ES&S machines though.
In the top 6 counties where McConnell got the biggest % of votes vs registered Reps ALL used ES&S machines...even the 2 counties where historically Mitch NEVER won.Now I know this thread is about Kentucky but since I'm bringing up ES&S
👉Lindsey Grahams SC uses ES&S in each county
👉Most Maine voters ballots go through an ES&S machine
👉Texas uses ES&S (& rejected Dominion)
👉Iowa uses ES&S
👉& Florida
Just sayin...
Now back to Kentucky😉Even though Trumps vote flipping scheme is one way, it's not the only way to help a candidate in an election. What if you also wanted to add voters to the voting rolls? All those added votes would inflate the totals for the candidates you're helping.I decided to look again at Breathitt Kentucky.
But how do you detect that?
👉Breathitt used ES&S machines
👉& it's where Mitch had the biggest number of votes compared to registered Republicans
So I looked at the population of Breathitt and compared it to the registered voters and it sure does look odd👇
According to census data
👉Breathitts population is 13,116
👉Approximately 23% of the population is 19 & under. So let's estimate 20% as under 18
👉That gives us approximately 10,500 old enough to vote
Yet KY Board of Electors says Breathitt has 11,497 registered voters?
huh🤔
But how would they add voters to voting rolls? You'd need an opportunity.
Coincidentally we know...
THE SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE CONCLUDED ELECTION SYSTEMS IN ALL 50 STATES WERE TARGETED BY RUSSIA
Russia wouldn't do it for shits & giggles. Could they have added names?
Some may say that by questioning results in Kentucky we're adding to Trumps narrative. But let's face it, Trumps incessant claims of voter fraud seem a lot like projection. And swing states who used Dominion machines mostly voted for Trump. So is Dominion a distraction from ES&S?And Trump may keep screaming about fraud but this speaks more to corruption.
Trump may not have won but who believes he didn't try?
In 2016, Hillary won 65M in the popular vote.
Trump may have expected to win with 70M votes if it wasn't for the overwhelming turn out for Joe👏🌊And Trump may have lost but Senators still won...
👉Mitch in KY
👉Lindsey in SC
👉Cornyn in TX
👉Ernst in IA
👉Collins in ME
Between ES&S machines, voter suppression, DeJoy's postal hijinks, Russian interference & Trump...
we're supposed to just accept this as a normal election?Ironically, in 2019, the same day that a bi-partisan Senate committee released a report saying that Russia had hacked into our election systems...guess who moved AGAIN to block consideration of election security legislation by Democrats...#MoscowMitch has done everything in his power to block election security
Yep, of course Mitch McConnell🤬
He's taken💰from vendors such as ES&S
He's got multiple ties to Russia
He laughed in Amy McGraths face during the debate...cause he knew the fix was in
How do we just ignore red flags in Kentucky's results?
By putting in a Special Prosecutor we can expose the truth.A Special Prosecutor would look at ALL machine vendors not just ones Trump points us to.By focusing on all vendors ES&S may come to light
They'd look at ALL States not just ones where Trump lost.
A Special Prosecutor won't ignore Trump asking Governors to change results & appointing DeJoy to disappear ballots.
They investigate
By focusing on all states the truth behind these Senate races may come out
And investigating may reveal whether Trump REALLY had 70M people vote for him?
An investigation could prove Bidens legitimacy AND expose the GOP's games
There's evidence of hugger-mugger elsewhere, as well -- particularly in Florida. Since this post has already reached a Brobdinagian length, I shall discuss Florida at another time.
As established above, and in previous posts, the real problem is not Dominion's system (which provides a paper trail) but ES&S.
Bottom line: I second the call for a special prosecutor. We need a genuine bipartisan effort. Such an investigation will serve four purposes:
1. It will assure the seccessionist Trumpian hordes that their issue is being addressed.
2. The end result will, I trust, clear Biden.
3. A thorough investigation MAY expose what the GOP has been doing for decades.
4. An investigation may lead to election reform legislation, and perhaps an amendment. We need paper ballots. We also need to end caging, gerrymandering, and long voting lines. If Voter ID cards will make the other side happy, then so be it.
Until then: If the Supreme Court does decide to hear Paxton's case, it would behoove a blue state AG to file an exactly similar case questioning the results in Texas, Florida, Kentucky and elsewhere. When will the Dems learn to hit back? Why aren't Dems as furious about ES&S (which really did have a Venezuela connection) as the Republicans are about Dominion?
13 comments:
There is a very important point democrats keep brushing it off. It's why Trump and a bunch of republicans were so sure of winning or they are going to win, after four years in office and it wasn't just four years in office. That would be the best investigation ever and the one to shut them up. They must have something sure to work and it did before. Democrats need to find it.
Also assuming Republicans are stupid isn't a working starting point. Evil yes.
It makes sense to me that we do have an election integrity problem on both sides of the coin. If certain power brokers at the state level think they can keep their boy/girl in office to keep doing their bidding they are going to do it. It’s about the Cash-ola. If that’s the case wouldn’t you think that tons of pols/consultants sort of know or are somewhat aware of how it works? This sort of thing would be the secret private business that politicians will try their darnedest to keep out of the papers. They know that if they let the people see the man behind the curtain things will ready go wild.
According to the linked article, published 13 November, only 3,279 people voted in Zapata County, yet Trump + Biden = 3,852 votes?
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Trump was a loose (you'll pardon the expression) canon. Wall Street likes predictability, hence the ongoing popularity of pump-and-dump deals and insider trading. Trump, for all his flailing attempts to adopt Republican business-friendly ideology and practice, was still an ego-bound dolt with a limited attention span, prone to way too much vindictive impulsiveness and short-sightedness.
Biden, on the other hand and clearly indicated by his cadre of donors, advisors and planned cabinet picks -- was the much "safer" alternative for the "Big Boys" who always hedge their bets anyway.
I don't doubt there was some pretty sophisticated presidential-vote fraud on both sides during the election, since it's long been an established American tradition, but this time the Billionaire Consensus(tm) was that Trump just "had to go," and so despite the overall down-ballot disappointment for folks expecting a "Blue Wave," Sleepy Joe was "engineered" a massive Electoral College victory, with a popular-vote total that is downright head-scratching, suggesting, perhaps, a bit of overkill.
Not to worry though, since the mainstream/corporate media and the judiciary (including even many patriotic Republican judges) seem mostly, even gleefully united in haughtily, swiftly dismissing all of Trump's strident "stolen election" claims as "baseless".
Yet the hard-core Trumpers remain a dangerous horde, and if they get too ornery and sabotage-planning in the next few weeks (did you hear Rush Limbaugh's now calling for Red-State secession?) it will be VERY interesting to see how "the adults in the room" manage to put down an incipient insurrection of the deplorables.
I fear that a necessary casualty of the forceful restoration of order and safety may be our beloved First Amendment. Unvarnished history teaches us, sadly, that the eventual destiny of a democratic republic is tyranny.
But in the best of all (negative) possible outcomes, ours will give us, at least, healthcare for all and a guaranteed, though minimal, annual income, chillingly accompanied by a totalitarian regime of anti-white/straight/male political correctness on steroids(!) and a frighteningly Armageddon-tempting new string of wars for Israel.
Anon, there is no need for mindless both-sidesism. I've never seen any evidence that Dems practice election fraud, and I've been looking for such throughout much of this century.
stickler: There were just such anomalies throughout Wisconsin in 2016.
To paraphrase the melodiously sagacious Professor Harold Hill:
"Either you are closing your eyes to a situation which you do not wish to acknowledge, or you have never lived and voted in a Democratic stronghold such as, say, Cook County, Illinois."
"Well, ya got trouble, my friend; trouble right there in your perceptions!"
Anon: I think you have to consider that the Repubs and the Dems are both for the most part being purchased by the same really really rich types. It’s the really wealthy that have the resources and influence to have balloting fixed. So it’s not that the Repubs or Dems do or don’t fix elections. It’s more that the wealthy groups first figure who they think will do better for them, and then they put their finger on the scale. Do some searches on Beto’s unexpectedly great performance against Cruz in Texas. I think you’ll find that Beto probably had some ‘help’ to do so well with his political platform in a state like Texas. No, it wasn’t enough to make him the winner. But, it’s the sort of fingerprints you have to look for nowadays.
I'm surprised Joseph didn't block your comment, anon 6:08, since Mr. Cannon's religion, the non-prog Democratic party line, allows no heresy. Even a vague implication that (((ultra-rich))) donors ultimately control "both sides" makes him go ballistic.
Touché 7:17!
Republicans have been stealing elections for years:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2007/10/1/392528/-
Plenty of evidence that Republicans monkeyed with the election.
https://www.gregpalast.com/federal-judge-hears-case-challenging-georgia-voter-purges/
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