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2020 ELECTION: GOP IN DECLINE?

Welcome to Day + 32…

How can one explain why Republican politicians are refusing to obey their sworn oath to protect and defend the Constitution and the Rule of Law? Are these people destroying America in favor of their self-interests, namely their reputations and their cushy positions? Placing their position, prestige, perks, privileges, and profits above their obligation to their Country, Constitution, and Constituents?

Georgia’s top law enforcement officer and Governor…

Georgia’s top election official and Legislature…

All Republicans and all appear obeisant to the Democrats and mainstream media.

A suspicious security video in the news?

Here we appear to have media sources claiming that they have security video and sworn testimony, under the penalty of perjury, claiming that an election worker allegedly told poll-watchers and the media that counting would cease and after they left, the counting continued, And, it appears that containers which may have contained ballots were removed from under a table and processed – without poll watchers present.

Some pointing to a large spike in votes for Biden as prima facie proof that the ballot box was being stuffed.

But do we really know what happened? Are those purported “hidden” votes simply stored out of the way because they were a trip and fall hazard? Did the containers contain ballots that were properly processed and awaiting counting? Nobody really knows at this point in time. Were the people who dismissed the envelope openers and processors who had already finished opening ballots? Are the containers, characterized as “suitcases,” simply wheeled vote transporters?

The reason that sworn testimony must be challenged in official proceedings is that people can honestly believe what they thought they heard and observed -- and testify to that understanding as fact. This video proves absolutely nothing.

How the media explains this away…

Video Doesn’t Show ‘Suitcases’ of Illegal Ballots in Georgia

The Trump campaign is falsely claiming that surveillance camera footage captured election workers in Georgia adding thousands of illegal ballots that were brought into an Atlanta facility in suspicious “suitcases” on election night.

The campaign presented the video to Georgia state lawmakers on Dec. 3. President Donald Trump’s lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, wrote on Twitter the same day: “The video tape doesn’t lie. Fulton County Democrats stole the election. It’s now beyond doubt.”

But state officials told us that the full video shows the supposed “suitcases” were actually standard containers used to secure ballots, and that the ballots in question were opened and prepared for counting earlier in the night in full view of observers. They said the campaign presented limited, selective parts of the footage.

That’s based on their review of the day’s video footage in full. Also, even though observers from the parties and press left the room before vote counting resumed, officials said, a state election board monitor and investigator from the Secretary of State’s office both returned to watch the counting until its completion.

Left unclear, though, is whether the observers and news media who were in the room were ever told by any election worker, explicitly or implicitly, to leave because the vote counting had ceased, as we’ll explain. Republicans allege that happened. Fulton County’s election director has disputed that claim.

What is the correct answer?

I would assume that the top election official, Brad Raffensperger, would have called the top law enforcement officer, Chris Carr, to request a Grand Jury hearing before releasing a statement. Thus, all parties could be sworn and testify and the matter could be resolved without hundreds of hours of speculation by all parties. At least the Governor has asked the Secretary of State to conduct a “signature audit” which proves little or nothing in terms of reversing the certification.

Bottom line…

As the saying goes, The GOP is like a purple unicorn, they are there for you right up to the moment you need them.

The real proof of election fraud lies in a voting system that lacks transparency, that observers were bullied and could not fully observe the proceedings, and there was major motivation (Orange Man is Hitler), means (obvious), and opportunity.

After the Russia/Trump/Flynn hoaxes, can you trust the government and its top elected officials?

We are so screwed.

-- steve

“Nullius in verba.”-- take nobody's word for it!

“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”-- George Bernard Shaw

“Progressive, liberal, Socialist, Marxist, Democratic Socialist -- they are all COMMUNISTS.”

“The key to fighting the craziness of the progressives is to hold them responsible for their actions, not their intentions.” – OCS

"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." -- Marcus Aurelius

“A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves, and traitors are not victims... but accomplices” -- George Orwell

“Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt." (The people gladly believe what they wish to.) ~Julius Caesar

“Describing the problem is quite different from knowing the solution. Except in politics." ~ OCS

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ELECTION 2020: NOBODY IS LISTENING

It is Day + 31, and it appears nobody is listening, Especially those elected officials and election supervisors in battleground states who appear to be negligent, corrupt, or simply clueless…

There is ample evidence to create a reasonable doubt that the integrity of the 2020 election was compromised, and the election results cannot be certified. But it appears that nobody wants to convert the evidence into proof through the courts, least of all, the jurists themselves. And, once again, we see that quite a few Republicans refuse to uphold their sworn oaths and fight to protect and defend the United States Constitution.

The news media seems to be occupied with some simpering lesbian actress who decided she was now a man, but a “queer man.” Whatever that means! The media's refusal to investigate obvious and blatant criminality and “speak truth to power’ is both unforgivable and un-American.

Confusing, to say the least…

Boycott Georgia run-off election…

Here we see a bible-thumping attorney Lin Wood, a man who previously supported Democrat causes and Obama, and attorney Sidney Powell urging Georgia Republicans to boycott the Georgia Senate run-off election, which is critical if the GOP wants to hold a slim Senate majority to act as a check and balance against an out-of-control Democrat House and possibly a Democrat presidency.

Calls by attorneys Lin Wood and Sydney Powell for Georgia voters to boycott two crucial Senate runoffs in January are sparking panic among Republicans, who fear that the duo’s remarks could cost them much-needed votes.

Wood and Powell, a former lawyer for the Trump campaign, have waged a series of legal battles in recent weeks challenging the results of the 2020 presidential election. But they turned heads on Wednesday when they urged Trump’s supporters at a rally in Alpharetta, Ga., not to vote in the January runoffs to protest the state’s elections process.

Wood also turned his ire on Loeffler and Perdue, who are both facing competitive runoff elections against well-funded Democrats in January that will determine the balance of power in the Senate in 2021 and beyond.

He urged voters to withhold support from the two Republican incumbents unless they demand that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) call a special session of the state General Assembly to effectively overturn President-elect Joe Biden’s win in Georgia.

“If Kelly Loeffler wants your vote, if David Perdue wants your vote, they've got to earn it. They've got to demand – publicly, repeatedly, consistently,” Wood said. “Brian Kemp, call a special session of the Georgia legislature, and if they do not do it, if Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue do not do it, they have not earned your vote.”

If Democrats Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock are able to take out Perdue and Loeffler in January, it would effectively give the party full control of the government next year. <Source>

Wisconsin…

The Wisconsin Supreme Court said Thursday it will not hear the Trump campaign’s latest legal challenge to President Trump’s election loss in the swing state last month.

The campaign filed a lawsuit Tuesday morning in Wisconsin’s high court alleging that abuse of absentee voting affected 220,000 ballots in the in the two bluest counties of the battleground state that President-elect Joe Biden won.

“These actions should be filed in the circuit court,” Justice Brian Hagedorn wrote in an opinion expressing the majority’s ruling.

“Following this law is not disregarding our duty, as some of my colleagues suggest. It is following the law,” he said. <Source>

Georgia…

A federal appeals court in Georgia will hear an expedited appeal of former Trump campaign lawyer Sidney Powell's request to gain a temporary restraining order forcing audits and a forensic examination of Dominion voting machines used by the state in the 2020 election.

Dominion is a voting-machine manufacturer, and its products have been alleged to be used as part of a widespread scheme to defraud President Trump of the 2020 election in several key battleground states, including Georgia. <Source>

Nevada…

Under oath, Clark County registrar Joe Gloria could clear up a lot. You’d think he’d be eager to defend his department. But Trump campaign officials said Clark County employees locked their doors to prevent Gloria from being served with a subpoena last Wednesday. Gloria then refused to leave his house over the weekend. As of Tuesday afternoon, it’s unclear whether Gloria will be deposed or not. <Source>

The Democrats limited public outrage against Democrat governors by paying teachers and others for not working…

Has anyone else noticed that teachers and other government workers are mostly immune from the Democrat lockdown plague that affects everyone else in the private sector? They have their salaries and healthcare covered – and any time-off is simply another vacation. Of course, they are not complaining – they are feeling little or no pain.

Official Government Malfeasance…

Have you ever wondered why the recommendations contained in the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform were not implemented or why politicians attacked them?

Could it have anything to do with the Commission’s recommendation that beginning in 2010, "all voters be required to present poll workers with a REAL ID card or its equivalent in order to vote" – which was vehemently opposed by the Democrats as a measure to suppress the vote rather than to improve election integrity?

Or the demand to maintain clean voter registration lists?

“The little information available on the quality of voter files is not reassuring. The creation of statewide voter databases allows for the elimination of duplicate registrations within states, but attempts to match voter files with records of other state agencies are often ineffective. Death records, for example, sometimes are not provided to election officials for three or four months, and information on felons is usually incomplete. Comparison with U.S. Census Bureau statistics also points to extensive “deadwood” on the voter registration lists. Some states have a large portion of inactive voters on their voter registration lists.”

Or possibly the section on absentee ballot verification?

“To verify the identity of voters who cast absentee ballots, the voter’s signature on the absentee ballot can be matched with a digitized version of the signature that the election administrator maintains. While such signature matches are usually done, they should be done consistently in all cases, so that election officials can verify the identity of every new registrant who casts an absentee ballot.”

Or the demand for transparent electronic voting systems – without hidden and proprietary algorithms embedded in the software?

The purpose of voting technology is to record and tally all votes accurately and to provide sufficient evidence to assure all participants — especially the losing candidates and their supporters — that the election result accurately reflects the will of the voters. Voting machines must be both accessible and transparent. As required by HAVA, the machines must be accessible to language minorities and citizens with disabilities, including the blind and visually impaired citizens, in a manner that allows for privacy and independence. Voting machines must also be transparent. They must allow for recounts and for audits, and thereby give voters confidence in the accuracy of the vote tallies.

In addition to the output of DREs, which can be verified through a paper audit trail, the inside process of programming DREs should be open to scrutiny by candidates, their supporters, independent experts, and other interested citizens, so that problems can be detected, deterred, or corrected, and so that the public will have confidence in the machines.

The greater threat to most systems comes not from external hackers, but from insiders who have direct access to the machines. Software can be modified maliciously before being installed into individual voting machines. There is no reason to trust insiders in the election industry any more than in other industries, such as gambling, where sophisticated insider fraud has occurred despite extraordinary measures to prevent it. Software can also be programmed incorrectly. This poses a likely threat when local programmers who lack the necessary skills nonetheless modify the ballot for local offices, and many might not have the sophistication required for the new machines.

At the same time, manufacturers of voting machines have legitimate reason to keep their voting machine software and its source code proprietary. The public interest in transparency and the proprietary interests of manufacturers can be reconciled by placing the source code in escrow with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and by making the source code available for inspection on a restricted basis to qualified individuals. NIST might make the source code available to recognized computer security experts at accredited universities and to experts acting on behalf of candidates or political parties under a nondisclosure agreement, which would bar them from making information about the source code public, though they could disclose security flaws or vulnerabilities in the voting system software.

Or the prosecution of fraud?

Election fraud usually attracts public attention and comes under investigation only in close elections. Courts may only overturn an election result if there is proof that the number of irregular or fraudulent votes exceeded the margin of victory. When there is a wide margin, the losing candidate rarely presses for an investigation. Fraud in any degree and in any circumstance is subversive to the electoral process. The best way to maintain ballot integrity is to investigate all credible allegations of election fraud and otherwise prevent fraud before it can affect an election.

Investigation and prosecution of election fraud should include those acts committed by individuals, including election officials, poll workers, volunteers, challengers or other nonvoters associated with the administration of elections, and not just fraud by voters.

It’s all there, and our elected officials did nothing. For that, they should be held responsible for this debacle.

Bottom line…

All of the good voting requirements are contained within the Carter-Baker report. Now, ask yourself why the Democrats do not want to implement safeguards? And why the GOP ignored them when they controlled the government?

It is amazing how many Democrats who challenged the 2016 election can’t find anything wrong with the 2020 election. If the mealy-mouthed squishy GOP had balls – they would set aside the certification of this election, let the Congress pick the President – and immediately implement voter integrity laws with criminal penalties for those who do not implement safeguards. For those who take to the streets, treat them as domestic terrorists if the loot, burn, or vandalize private or public property. Hose them down with hard to remove bank-robbery dye and check their identification as they leave the area.

We are so screwed.

-- steve

P.S. Squad leader and communist Alexandria Ocasio Cortez is selling a $58 “Tax the Rich” sweatshirt on her site. Shouldn’t she be giving them away to the homeless in New York as winter approaches?

“Nullius in verba.”-- take nobody's word for it!

“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”-- George Bernard Shaw

“Progressive, liberal, Socialist, Marxist, Democratic Socialist -- they are all COMMUNISTS.”

“The key to fighting the craziness of the progressives is to hold them responsible for their actions, not their intentions.” – OCS

"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." -- Marcus Aurelius

“A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves, and traitors are not victims... but accomplices” -- George Orwell

“Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt." (The people gladly believe what they wish to.) ~Julius Caesar

“Describing the problem is quite different from knowing the solution. Except in politics." ~ OCS

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ELECTION 2020: KATY BARR THE DOOR

Welcome to Day + 30.

The litigators are litigating. The politicians are holding hearings. And, Joe Biden is joking about how Attorney General William Barr might need the witness protection plan after yesterday’s declaration that “To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election,"

Biden Made Sure ‘Trump Is Not Going to Be President for Four More Years’

Here’s what Joe Biden had to say about the future in our interview.

President-elect Joe Biden was in a good mood as we talked on the phone Tuesday evening for an hour — he in Delaware and me in Bethesda, Md. He apologized, though, for being late. He had been following the breaking news that Attorney General William Barr had announced that the Justice Department had not uncovered any significant fraud that could have affected the results of the presidential election. It’s all over.

Biden joked that Barr had just called him, “asking if I can get him in the witness protection program for endorsing me.”

Considering the Trump team’s hurricane of dishonest claims about the election, the president-elect was entitled to a little laugh at its expense. Otherwise, he was all business. <Source>

Why you can’t believe politicians or the media…

From the AP…

WASHINGTON (AP) — Disputing President Donald Trump’s persistent, baseless claims, Attorney General William Barr declared Tuesday the U.S. Justice Department has uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 election.

Barr’s comments, in an interview with the Associated Press, contradict the concerted effort by Trump, his boss, to subvert the results of last month’s voting and block President-elect Joe Biden from taking his place in the White House.

Barr told the AP that U.S. attorneys and FBI agents have been working to follow up specific complaints and information they’ve received, but “to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.” <Source>

[OCS: Remember the narrative sequencing of the left – there was no fraud, there was no widespread fraud, there was no widespread fraud that could change the election, and then “old news, move along, nothing to see here."

What is most objectionable is Barr’s use of progressive rhetoric and the fact that there was no mention of where or how they looked for fraud. Essentially ignoring hundreds of Americans who put their freedom and futures on the line to issue sworn affidavits to what they witnessed.

Many of those testifying claimed that they turned their information over to law enforcement authorities, including the FBI, U.S. Attorneys, and State officials and have received no follow-ups. ]

Department of Justice pushback after public outcry…

The Department of Justice issued a statement on Tuesday in response to the backlash from an article by The Associated Press which quoted Attorney General William Barr saying that “to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”

“Some media outlets have incorrectly reported that the DOJ has concluded its investigation of election fraud and announced an affirmative finding of no fraud in the election. That is not what the Associated Press reported nor what the Attorney General stated,” a DOJ spokesperson said, according to CBS News reporter Catherine Herridge.

[OCS: The reporting appears to be a correct, verbatim quote. That Barr did not expand it does not mean it was misreported.]

“The Department will continue to receive and vigorously pursue all specific and credible allegations of fraud as expeditiously as possible.” <Source>

[OCS: To say that the Department will act expeditiously as possible is a joke. With clear and convincing evidence of crimes committed by Hillary Clinton, John Brennan, James Clapper, Jim Comey, and others – nothing has happened. And, John Durham’s credibility is shrinking by the minute.]

Nobody seems to have the complete picture. What we know is that the media moguls and tech tyrants are still pushing the Russia collusion story with no retractions or apologies for the damage they have done to innocent individuals. Or for what they have done to America by censoring or omitting the negative news about Biden, his associates, his past, and his future policies.

Wisconsin…

Another lawsuit filed in Wisconsin, alleging, among other things, a conspiracy between five mayors of major cities and tech tyrant Mark Zuckerberg.

Specifically, the lawsuit alleges the following key unlawful acts:

Directives by the Wisconsin Elections Commission undercutting Wisconsin’s Photo Identification Law.

A Plan by the Mayors of Wisconsin’s five largest cities (Milwaukee, Madison, Kenosha, Green Bay and Racine) and funded by an out-of-state organization known as the Center for Tech & Civic Life to implement a new form of balloting in Wisconsin using un-manned, absentee ballot drop boxes without adequate or uniform chain of custody standards and security protocols contrary to the Wisconsin Election Code.

Directives by the Wisconsin Elections Commission that facilitated the unlawful, un-manned absentee ballot drop box Plan by endorsing illegal drop boxes (which were then ultimately used throughout the State in the election), failing to adopt uniform chain of custody and security protocols for the ballots in the drop boxes and failing to ensure public access to the process.

Directives by the Wisconsin Elections Commission to election officials to tamper with witness certifications on absentee ballot envelopes which facilitated the counting of unlawful ballots in the election in violation of the Wisconsin Election Code. <Source>

What makes this important?

“The Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) is a Chicago, Illinois-based center-left election reform advocacy group formed in 2012. The organization pushes for left-of-center voting policies and election administration. It has a wide reach into local elections offices across the nation and is funded by many left-of-center funding organizations. In the months leading up to the 2020 election, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan donated a total of $350 million to CTCL. CTCL then donated the funds in the form of grants to various jurisdictions throughout the United States to help them hire more staff, buy mail-in ballot processing machinery, and other measures they deemed necessary to properly handle the election amid the COVID-19 pandemic.” <Source>

Sad News…

Professor Walter Williams, the brilliant, witty, and soft-spoken conservative economist has passed away at age 84. In 1972 he earned a doctorate in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles UCLA). Thankfully, his wisdom will live on for the ages in the form of thirteen books, hundreds of hours of video, and countless words in his syndicated columns, editorials, and essays. Williams saw that creeping progressivism with its exploitation of class, race, and sex, and the negative effects of Marxism, teachers unions, race hustlers, and gun control, as threats to our liberty and freedom. He spoke out about liberal economics as being exploited as a path to social engineering rather than a path to peace and prosperity. He was a man of honor, courage, and principle. The iconic Thomas Sowell, a long-time friend and fellow economist said it best, “We may not see his like again. And that is our loss.”

Bottom line…

Life goes on. We do the best we can with what we have. We eliminate the superfluous clutter and enjoy what we have.

We are so screwed.

-- steve

“Nullius in verba.”-- take nobody's word for it!

“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”-- George Bernard Shaw

“Progressive, liberal, Socialist, Marxist, Democratic Socialist -- they are all COMMUNISTS.”

“The key to fighting the craziness of the progressives is to hold them responsible for their actions, not their intentions.” – OCS

"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." -- Marcus Aurelius

“A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves, and traitors are not victims... but accomplices” -- George Orwell

“Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt." (The people gladly believe what they wish to.) ~Julius Caesar

“Describing the problem is quite different from knowing the solution. Except in politics." ~ OCS

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ELECTION 2020: BARRING THE DOOR?

Welcome to Day +29…

While the battle continues in the aptly-named battle-ground states, we are hearing more and more testimony of gross discrepancies and unexplained anomalies that the government’s grand poohbahs refuse to accept as evidence of a systemic election problem.

Where is the evidence?

The truth is that the evidence can be found almost everywhere, especially in the form of sworn affidavits, documents, and recordings. However, the trick is to turn the evidence into proof by having it tested in a court of law. And then crafting a suitable remedy. Unfortunately, time is growing short, and it is more than likely that Joe Biden will be declared the President-elect and then inaugurated. Leaving the majority of Americans believing the election had been stolen by the Democrats and, again, unfortunately, waiting futilely for some form of post-election redress. Of course, the Democrats will be screaming, “old news, move on,” and the attention will be directed toward the 2022 elections. By then, the Democrats will have strengthened their hold on the country.

Attorney Sidney Powell said on Monday that someone had removed a Dominion Voting Systems server from a recount center in Fulton County, Georgia.

“Someone went down to the Fulton center where the votes and Dominion machines were, claimed there was a software glitch and they had to replace the software, and it seems that they removed the server,” Powell told “Lou Dobbs Tonight” in an interview aired on Nov. 30.

Powell added that her team does not know where the server is.

Jessica Corbitt, the director of external affairs for Fulton County, told The Epoch Times on Dec. 1 that the server in question is still on the premises of the recount location at World Congress Center in Atlanta.

Robb Pitt, the chairman of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, told reporters on Tuesday that the county was 88 percent through the recount when the Dominion server crashed. The Dominion technician on-site could not resolve the problem so another Dominion representative flew in the day after. <Source>’=

[OCS: In over 50+ years of data processing experience, from mainframes to microcomputers, I have never physically removed a computer to resolve a software issue. Likewise, any mission-critical system was equipped with failure safeguards, dual power supplies, mirroring disk systems, and journaled transaction capture. The most data that could be lost was the current transaction and the transactions in transit.

The question not asked nor answered is, was another server swapped in, the software fingerprinted and verified, and the verified data re-loaded?]

Dr. Linda Lee Tarver, a former Michigan Civil rights commissioner, Community affairs Director and Election Integrity Liaison, and a Michigan hero…

Very rarely do you find a long-time, experienced state employee who is intelligent enough to grasp the mechanics of elections and articulately convey that knowledge to both politicians and the public. Here Dr. Tarver calls for a forensic audit and explains why a simple recount, especially in Detroit, would be a waste of time, energy, and money.

Democrat Senator Jeff Irwin tried to blame the GOP for the problem. Tarver points out that the problems happen mostly in Democrat-controlled precincts that fail to enforce election laws. BTW: Dr. Tarver holds a bachelor's degree in business management, a master's degree in industrial/organizational psychology, and a doctorate of education.

If the video is missing, it can be found here.

Bill Barr – a hit and a miss…

The hit – It appears that Attorney General William Barr has appointed the “missing in action” U.S. Attorney for the State of Connecticut, John Durham, as “special counsel” to continue his investigation into Crossfire Hurricane, the Trump/Russia collusion investigation. This will protect his current probe as a prospective president-elect Joe Biden prepares to be inaugurated in January.

Unlike what the progressive socialist democrats have been asserting, it is normal and customary for a new President to request the resignation of some or all U.S. Attorneys that are part of the Justice Department and who serve at the pleasure of the President, and are confirmed by the Senate.

Especially since Durham could be requested to resign and his fabled probe, which was due sometime last summer, deep-sixed by the Biden Administration. It is harder to fire a “special counsel” or tamper with their investigation without opening oneself up to charges relating to an impeachable offense -- obstruction of justice.

It should be noted that the actual appointment was dated October 19, 2020, and kept secret at the request of Attorney General Barr ostensibly “because legitimate investigative and privacy concerns warrant confidentiality.”

The miss -- Using the talking points language of the progressive socialist democrats, Attorney General William Barr again claimed that the Department of Justice had not uncovered evidence of “widespread” voter fraud that would change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

Barr continues to claim that U.S. attorneys and FBI agents have been working to follow-up specific complaints and information they’ve received. Still, the Trump legal team and their numerous witnesses insist they have not been contacted by the FBI or have not received any follow-up when they proactively notified the FBI of their concerns.

I am annoyed…

Federal investigators are probing whether someone attempted to bribe White House officials to obtain a presidential pardon, according to court documents unsealed Tuesday. <Source>

Great, the DOJ and the FBI failed to investigate the greatest hoax in the United States and now the greatest theft of votes in the United States.

One, that Attorney General Barr did not release a preliminary statement before the election regarding Durham’s work since overwhelming testimony and documents have exposed issues and further questions involving the White House, the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, foreign governments (England, Australia, and Germany), and the Department of State.

Two, that Attorney General Barr did not take a proactive role in election irregularities.

And three, and most troubling, Attorney General Barr has not been forthcoming on Hunter Biden’s laptop.

It appears that Attorney General William Barr hasn’t spent any significant time reviewing the sworn testimony that is being presented nationwide, or he would have never reached a conclusion about election fraud. Several people have taken their information to the government and they were busy looking for election problems on Pluto.

Bottom line…

The tale is told in the Democrat narrative. First, there were those Democrats and media talking heads who said, “there was no voter fraud.” Followed by those very same people saying, “there was no ‘widespread” voter fraud.” And, now we hear, “there was no widespread voter fraud that could affect the outcome of the election.” The logical fallacy being, one does not need to demonstrate widespread fraud, only significant fraud in a single county that rises above the margins separating the candidates.

But, when one considers the margins between the two candidates and sworn testimony regarding multiples of those margins, one must conclude that there was widespread voter fraud. It must be investigated using a forensic audit to determine if the results can change the election outcome.

Most certainly, the Democrats, media moguls, and tech tyrants do not want to see either justice or a Trump re-election. Most certainly, a portion of the squishy GOP wants to return “establishment values” to the government’s leadership, which means ousting President Trump. And, of course, the cowardly GOP just wants to move along to the next race rather than stand and fight for the American people.

Let us not forget, “We the People” should not have to prove fraud; the election officials should be required to prove election device security, accurate tallies, and the chain of custody of ballots flowing through the system and transmittal of results.

Something stinks, and we are totally and thoroughly screwed.

-- steve

“Nullius in verba.”-- take nobody's word for it!

“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”-- George Bernard Shaw

“Progressive, liberal, Socialist, Marxist, Democratic Socialist -- they are all COMMUNISTS.”

“The key to fighting the craziness of the progressives is to hold them responsible for their actions, not their intentions.” – OCS

"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." -- Marcus Aurelius

“A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves, and traitors are not victims... but accomplices” -- George Orwell

“Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt." (The people gladly believe what they wish to.) ~Julius Caesar

“Describing the problem is quite different from knowing the solution. Except in politics." ~ OCS

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ELECTION 2020: IS IT A WIN OR A LOSS?

Welcome to Day +28 …

The current state of play can be aptly described as a variation of Schrödinger's cat thought experiment. Consider the hypothetical scenario where the tallies of all disputed swing-state elections -- representing both a simultaneous win and loss for President Trump’s reelection -- are in an indeterminate state of quantum superposition. Schrödinger's cat is still in the box and we do not know if he is alive or dead.

The question becomes: does the observation of the tallies cause the indeterminate quantum state to collapse into a single reality -- a determinate state where only one outcome of a live or dead cat, winning or losing tallies, will manifest in this version of a multiverse. If this sounds like bullshit – welcome to the world of politics where it depends which political party observes the tallies.

What we are likely to find when the box is opened…

We do not know who destroyed the evidence, when it was done, or what it may have meant.

Arizona…

Another long day of testimony by the Giuliani traveling legal show where the narrative is mixed with the sworn testimony of personally-witnessed misbehavior and presentations of the statistical improbability of the vote counts.

However, we saw Republican Arizona Governor Doug Ducey certify the Arizona State 2020 election for Joe Biden without waiting for the compelling first-person sworn testimony suggesting there were existing system and procedural challenges,. Including testimony about a failed certification test of the voting system that required a system shut down and a second certification test completed on a second machine. And, testimony of votes being cast for Donald Trump and being recorded for Biden.

Ducey commenting, “The system is strong, that’s why I have bragged on it so much. This is America, and no voter should be disenfranchised. The votes have been tabulated, all 15 counties have certified their results.”

“This certified the victories for both president-elect Joe Biden and incoming Sen. Mark Kelly in the state, the latter who will be sworn in on Wednesday."

It’s may be a question of tabulation versus calculation…

The votes should have been tabulated (counted) not algorithmically computed.

It appears that the Dominion software stores vote counts in floating-point decimal format (0000.0000) rather than integer format (0000), which is necessary because the system features a “fractional” or “weighted race” voting capability which can assign a portion of the same vote to different candidates. Ostensibly developed for condo and homeowner’s elections where each vote is proportional to the amount of property owned. Only a comparison of the counted ballots with the official tallies will illustrate whether or not the feature was used.

Then there is the question of equipment being supervised and/or operated by Dominion employees who literally hold the keys to the kingdom. According to the Dominion manual, “Supervisor mode is a high-level mode reserved for technicians authorized by Dominion Voting Systems. Access to the functions in Supervisor Mode is restricted by a password maintained by Dominion. Functions include pre-configuration parameters, debug level tools for troubleshooting, and technician-specific functions used internally to monitor the tabulator's status and health during service cycles.”

Bottom line…

Two weeks to determine whether the Republican State Legislatures have the cojones to take control of the electoral process and decertify the elections. The idea that Joe Biden beat the numbers of Barack Obama with vote percentages approaching those of Saddam Hussein in some precincts is improbable.

I still think Biden will be inaugurated as the President, with the majority of the population believing the election was rigged. Hopefully, the GOP will retain the Senate by winning the two Georgia run-off elections to provide constitutional checks and balances.

Another day, another narrative. On to 2022.

We are so screwed.

-- steve

“Nullius in verba.”-- take nobody's word for it!

“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”-- George Bernard Shaw

“Progressive, liberal, Socialist, Marxist, Democratic Socialist -- they are all COMMUNISTS.”

“The key to fighting the craziness of the progressives is to hold them responsible for their actions, not their intentions.” – OCS

"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." -- Marcus Aurelius

“A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves, and traitors are not victims... but accomplices” -- George Orwell

“Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt." (The people gladly believe what they wish to.) ~Julius Caesar

“Describing the problem is quite different from knowing the solution. Except in politics." ~ OCS

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2020 ELECTIONS: UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

Welcome to Day +27…

Pennsylvania…

Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “When you lose an election, you should leave quietly. It’s the will of the people that has been expressed,” obviously referring to President Trump.

But, considering his role in the implementation of a questionable electronic voting system, the botched rules and regulations governing the election, and his ignoring of evidence of massive vote tampering, perhaps it is he that should silently leave and turn the mess over to a special counsel.

Bad news in Georgia...

Federal Judge Timothy Bratten had issued a Temporary Restraining Order against the Governor and Secretary of State and other officials stopping them from destroying Dominion voting machines, software, and data and to produce the contract between Georgia and Dominion forthwith. However, a second order was hastily issued and Federal Judge Thomas Batten quickly rescinded his recent order barring Georgia officials from wiping or resetting the state’s voting machines and is now allowing them to erase the machines as scheduled.

"In addition, Plaintiffs contend that Union County officials have advised that they are going to wipe or reset the voting machines of all data and bring the count back to zero on Monday, November 30. On this basis, Plaintiffs seek a temporary restraining order to impound and preserve the voting machines in the State of Georgia, and to prevent any wiping of data. However, Plaintiffs’ request fails because the voting equipment that they seek to impound is in the possession of county election officials. Any injunction the Court issues would extend only to Defendants and those within their control, and Plaintiffs have not demonstrated that county election officials are within Defendants’ control. Defendants cannot serve as a proxy for local election officials against whom the relief should be sought." [1:20-cv-4809-TCB]

Knowing of the controversy and allegations, if the Georgia officials allow the destruction of evidence, they should be charged with obstruction of justice.

Better news in Georgia...

Bowing to public pressure and a late-night Zoom appeal, it appears that the judge issued a late-night third order...

1. Defendants shall have until Wednesday, December 2, at 5:00 p.m. EST, to file a brief setting forth in detail the factual bases they have, if any, against allowing the three forensic inspections. The brief should be accompanied and supported by affidavit or other evidence, if appropriate.

2. Defendants are hereby ENJOINED and RESTRAINED from altering, destroying, or erasing, or allowing the alteration, destruction, or erasure of, any software or data on any Dominion voting machine in Cobb, Gwinnett, and Cherokee Counties.

3. Defendants are ORDERED to promptly produce to Plaintiffs a copy of the contract between the State and Dominion.

4. This temporary restraining order shall remain in effect for ten days, or until further order of the Court, whichever comes first.

IT IS SO ORDERED this 29th day of November, 2020, at 10:10 p.m. EST.

Israel and Iran…

As the deadlines for the selection of the President and the inauguration are nearing, we are seeing a number of unintended, but anticipated consequences.

With the rising tide of anti-Semitism and antipathy for Israel in the Democrat Party and the likelihood that numerous anti-Semitic/anti-Israel Clintonistas and Obamacons will serve as advisors to a Biden/Harris Administration, the general anti-Semitism within the Department of State, and the reappearance of those involved with the disastrous Iran nuclear deal, the time for America’s support for Israel militarily and in the United Nations may be growing short. Not to forget that cheese-eating surrender monkey John Kerry who will rush to his Palestinian terrorist pals and Iranians who he has been secretly negotiating with.

Especially when the Democrat Party tolerates and refuses to condemn the open and virulent anti-Semitism of Representatives Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, and the majority of the Congressional Black Caucus. And the openly communist, anti-Semitic Black Lives Matter mob that the Democrats allow to run rampant on American streets as they “defund the police.”

So, we must question whether or not the recent assassination of Iran’s nuclear scientist and grand poohbah of its covert nuclear program, Dr. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, ostensibly by Israel’s Mossad with the authorization of Benjamin Netanyahu, was a deliberate provocation design to spark a retaliatory response on Israel?

“The chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, described Mr. Fakhrizadeh’s killing as ‘a bitter and heavy blow to the country’s defense system’ and said there would be ‘severe revenge.’”

“The commander in chief of the Revolutionary Guards, Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, said ‘the assassination of our nuclear scientists is a clear, violent war against our ability to achieve modern science.’ He carefully avoided mention of the overwhelming evidence that Mr. Fakhrizadeh taught physics once a week at the Guards’ own university, but spent the rest of his time keeping alive the option of building a nuclear warhead that could fit atop one of Iran’s growing fleet of missiles.” <Source>

“Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed Friday a ‘definitive punishment’ for the death of the country’s top nuclear scientist. Describing Fakhrizadeh as a ‘martyr,’ Khamenei promised retribution while avoiding being specific.”

And a justification of an Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities while President Trump is still in office and able to provide military and diplomatic assistance to Israel? Or will Iran wait to see if it can sucker the Biden/Harris Administration into reducing or eliminating sanctions in return for another meaningless deal that sees Iran continue its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program?

The United States appears to be responding to Iran’s rhetoric by deploying the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier strike group to the Persian Gulf. It should be remembered that this single carrier strike group, including its guard submarines, has more firepower than the Iranian armed forces combined.

Some in the media are openly wondering if increased hostilities in the region will keep a President Biden from returning to the bogus one-sided 2015 joint nuclear agreement that traded away sanctions relief and billions of dollars in return for a worthless piece of paper promising an end to its nuclear weapons program. Biden — who may enter office on Jan 21, 2021 — appears to believe that the nuclear agreement had been working as intended in preventing the Iranians from developing a nuclear weapon. Blind and stupid – what a combination in a President!

Just in time – an Israeli bomb shelter in the Negev Desert…

Bottom line…

No matter what you may think or say about President Trump or members of his administration, there was little doubt in anyone's mind that Trump is not a racist, not anti-Semitic, pro-America, and fully supports Israel.

With the progressive socialist democrats, crazy never stops.

We are so screwed.

--steve

“Nullius in verba.”-- take nobody's word for it!

“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”-- George Bernard Shaw

“Progressive, liberal, Socialist, Marxist, Democratic Socialist -- they are all COMMUNISTS.”

“The key to fighting the craziness of the progressives is to hold them responsible for their actions, not their intentions.” – OCS

"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." -- Marcus Aurelius

“A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves, and traitors are not victims... but accomplices” -- George Orwell

“Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt." (The people gladly believe what they wish to.) ~Julius Caesar

“Describing the problem is quite different from knowing the solution. Except in politics." ~ OCS

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JOHNS HOPKINS' STUDENT NEWSLETTER DISHONESTLY SELF-CENSORS SCIENCE REPORTER

"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." — John Adams (1770)

When politicians, the mainstream news media, and the social media platforms say “follow the science,” it is best to ask: what science, what scientists, and what are the underlying motivations for the science they are touting.

So it comes as somewhat of a shock that a student publication of a prestigious educational institution like Johns Hopkins would actually admit to intellectual dishonesty as a “good thing.”

Remember, they are disappearing their reporter’s work – not the actual cited author’s work.

A closer look at U.S. deaths due to COVID-19

Editor’s Note: After The News-Letter published this article on Nov. 22, it was brought to our attention that our coverage of Genevieve Briand’s presentation “COVID-19 Deaths: A Look at U.S. Data” has been used to support dangerous inaccuracies that minimize the impact of the pandemic.

[OCS: First and foremost, have the enlightened editors of this student newsletter noticed that the work being withdrawn is a piece written by Yanni Gu and not the author of the research being cited or referred to by the misleading headline. If anything, the headline should be “Reporter’s work withdrawn because of social media outcry.”

Second, this is not a scientific article as one might find in a peer-reviewed journal, but a report on an opinion as expressed in the cited subject’s work. Hence, it is more a publicity puff piece than an authoritative article. That being said, consider the journalistic behavior in handling this matter.

There have always been “unfashionable or disputed” articles in both the scientific literature and the lay media to expose divergent and differing points of view. It was left up to the intelligent reader to select how the information was interpreted and to what use the information was put. The entire phenomena of the scientific method is one of controlled skepticism whereby a hypothesis could be tested, the findings and conclusions published, and the findings replicated, validated, or falsified.

While peer-review is a publishing process, as is editorial control over the selection of content to be published, it is quite extraordinary to find a published work withdrawn because of its social impact on the fashionable one-sided science of the day.]

We decided on Nov. 26 to retract this article to stop the spread of misinformation, as we noted on social media. However, it is our responsibility as journalists to provide a historical record. We have chosen to take down the article from our website, but it is available here as a PDF.

[OCS: You will notice that they did not actually retract or repudiate the underlying work itself, but their reporter's story to which they provided a link. What they did is to self-censor and semi-disappear their own article from mainstream news media and social media platforms.

I find the PDF-overlay “Retracted by the News-Letter” to be offensive and an insult to the reporter who is expressing an opinion and reporting on the research of a third-party having nothing to do with the publication. You can retract material containing material misstatements of fact but cannot make the same argument when dealing with opinions.]

In accordance with our standards for transparency, we are sharing with our readers how we came to this decision. The News-Letter is an editorially and financially independent, student-run publication. Our articles and content are not endorsed by the University or the School of Medicine, and our decision to retract this article was made independently.

[OCS: I wonder if, as publishers, they appreciate the irony of claiming to have a “standard for transparency” and then disappear an article? However, they do a nice job of providing plausible deniability to the University and its School of Medicine, both of which are the recipient of multi-million dollar government grants as well as private donations.]

Briand’s study should not be used exclusively in understanding the impact of COVID-19, but should be taken in context with the countless other data published by Hopkins, the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

[OCS: There is that magic word “context.” As if the reader were too stupid to be able to read, interpret, and assign some weight to the content based on one’s education and experience without someone needing to supply “context,” – in this case, references to the politically-correct and fashionable science of the day. Much of which is used as an excuse to drive public policy. And, certainly, public policies that are political with little or no legitimate basis in science.

Want context? Consider the psychological and physiological effects of the economic trauma driven by a need to “flatten the curve.” Not to eradicate or control the spread of the COVID-19 disease – but to ensure that the medical system has the physical capacity to serve the sick. Common sense will inform the average reader that simply locking down a portion of the population will shift the disease curve to a later date. And, if one is intellectually honest, most of the reporting based on testing-dependent cases is meaningless as a metric – but is useful as a political scare tactic to ensure public compliance with freedom-denying policies promulgated by self-serving and power-hungry politicians and their special interests.]

As assistant director for the Master’s in Applied Economics program at Hopkins, Briand is neither a medical professional nor a disease researcher. At her talk, she herself stated that more research and data are needed to understand the effects of COVID-19 in the U.S.

[OCS: Another display of intellectual dishonesty. The truth is that one does not have to be a medical professional or a disease researcher to statistically analyze data presented in a public forum. One needs a background in statistics and economics. Or necessarily a journalist with scientific credentials to highlight the work of a credentialed researcher.

The author of the work cited is a Ph.D. and “has taught for the Applied Economics Program since summer 2015 and currently teaches Microeconomic Theory, Statistics, and Econometrics. She has many years of experience teaching numerous and varied economics and statistics courses. Her fields of interest are microeconomics and econometrics.” <Source> Certainly well qualified to analyze the data.]

Briand was quoted in the article as saying, “All of this points to no evidence that COVID-19 created any excess deaths. Total death numbers are not above normal death numbers.” This claim is incorrect and does not take into account the spike in raw death count from all causes compared to previous years. According to the CDC, there have been almost 300,000 excess deaths due to COVID-19. Additionally, Briand presented data of total U.S. deaths in comparison to COVID-19-related deaths as a proportion percentage, which trivializes the repercussions of the pandemic. This evidence does not disprove the severity of COVID-19; an increase in excess deaths is not represented in these proportionalities because they are offered as percentages, not raw numbers.

[OCS: I must be blind. I do not see the above statements about an incorrect claim as being attributable to anybody, credentialed or otherwise. It is just like someone standing up and shouting out an opinion.]

Briand also claimed in her analysis that deaths due to heart diseases, respiratory diseases, influenza and pneumonia may be incorrectly categorized as COVID-19-related deaths. However, COVID-19 disproportionately affects those with preexisting conditions, so those with those underlying conditions are statistically more likely to be severely affected and die from the virus.

[OCS: The national COVID-19 statistics contain significant errors, especially given the lack of uniform standards for reporting deaths, the government’s incentivization of increased reimbursement for COVID-19-related diseases, and the government’s own allowance of opinion versus confirmation of Covid-19's presence is suspect. As is the correct categorization of those who were near the end of their natural life when stricken or those afflicted with physiologically-significant comorbidities.]

Because of these inaccuracies and our failure to provide additional information about the effects of COVID-19, The News-Letter decided to retract this article. It is our duty as a publication to combat the spread of misinformation and to enhance our fact-checking process. We apologize to our readers. <Source>

[OCS: The inaccuracies are built into the system and can be correctly acknowledged by citing the bounds of statistical error. Your duty as a publisher is to present timely and interesting information to your readers, not to provide “context” or uninformed or unattributed editorial comment.

As for “fact-checking,” this is an editorial process that should have taken place before the article was published – and not in response to how it may have been received by the public. If you haven’t noticed, your publication is not a peer-reviewed journal of scientific repute.

It is your right to publish what you want, but if you want to publish a refutation – by all means, publish a refutation by a credible author willing to make their argument with at least the same scientific rigor as the argument being refuted.

And, yes, you should apologize to your readers. Not for publishing the author’s work CITING THE WORK OF ANOTHER, but for infantilizing your audience and suggesting they may need your guidance and context to understand, appreciate, and apply what they are reading. There is little doubt in my mind that some students are smarter than their professors, and continually dumbing-down content for public consumption weakens our entire educational system and collective national wisdom.]

Why is all the COVID-19 News bad?

Precisely the very question asked by three professors; Bruce Sacerdote and Ranjan Sehgal from Dartmouth, and Molly Cook Brown, who have produced a research paper (Working Paper 2810 dated November 2020) for the National Bureau of Economic Research titled, “Why Is All COVID-19 News Bad News?”

ABSTRACT

We analyze the tone of COVID-19 related English-language news articles written since January 1, 2020.

Ninety one percent of stories by U.S. major media outlets are negative in tone versus fifty- four percent for non-U.S. major sources and sixty five percent for scientific journals. '

The negativity of the U.S. major media is notable even in areas with positive scientific developments including school re-openings and vaccine trials. Media negativity is unresponsive to changing trends in new COVID-19 cases or the political leanings of the audience.

U.S. major media readers strongly prefer negative stories about COVID-19 and negative stories in general. Stories of increasing COVID-19 cases outnumber stories of decreasing cases by a factor of 5.5 even during periods when new cases are declining.

Among U.S. major media outlets, stories discussing President Donald Trump and hydroxychloroquine are more numerous than all stories combined that cover companies and individual researchers working on COVID-19 vaccines.

Of course, the short answer is the extreme influence of progressive socialist democrats in the mainstream media and on the social media platforms where, unfortunately, elite academics and political and corporate poohbahs mistake random musings of ill-informed individuals as representative of real life in the United States. It is almost amusing to see how the powerful react when they find a 16-year-old and a few bots driving their marketing decisions in an echo chamber.

Bottom line...

Editorial pressure on authors writing about subjects involving public policy and fashionable science is growing more severe each day in this politically-correct atmosphere controlled by media moguls and tech tyrants.

To condemn an author for reporting on a researcher's work by retracting their article is disingenuous.

We are so screwed.

-- steve

“Nullius in verba.”-- take nobody's word for it!

“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”-- George Bernard Shaw

“Progressive, liberal, Socialist, Marxist, Democratic Socialist -- they are all COMMUNISTS.”

“The key to fighting the craziness of the progressives is to hold them responsible for their actions, not their intentions.” – OCS

"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." -- Marcus Aurelius

“A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves, and traitors are not victims... but accomplices” -- George Orwell

“Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt." (The people gladly believe what they wish to.) ~Julius Caesar

“Describing the problem is quite different from knowing the solution. Except in politics." ~ OCS

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ELECTION 2020: IS A LOSS A LOSS?

Welcome to Day +26.

Election fatigue is setting in, but not a loss of hope as people, despite the media blackout and social media censorship, are starting to realize the magnitude of election tampering, which seems only to benefit one side.

Setbacks can sometimes seem like progress when properly spun…

While the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit rejected the Trump campaign’s appeal of a federal lawsuit filed in Pennsylvania that challenged the outcome of the 2020 elections, it did clear a pathway for the case to be appealed to the United States Supreme Court – if they choose to take the case given their reluctance to interfere in elections.

Excerpts from the opinion…

[Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., et al. v. Secretary Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, et al., C.A. No. 20-3371 <Source>]

“Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.”

“The Trump Presidential Campaign asserts that Pennsylvania’s 2020 election was unfair. But as lawyer Rudolph Giuliani stressed, the Campaign “doesn’t plead fraud. . . . [T]his is not a fraud case. Instead, it objects that Pennsylvania’s Secretary of State and some counties restricted poll watchers and let voters fix technical defects in their mail-in ballots. It offers nothing more.”

“This case is not about whether those claims are true. Rather, the Campaign appeals on a very narrow ground: whether the District Court abused its discretion in not letting the Campaign amend its complaint a second time. It did not.”

“Most of the claims in the Second Amended Complaint boil down to issues of state law. But Pennsylvania law is willing to overlook many technical defects. It favors counting votes as long as there is no fraud. Indeed, the Campaign has already litigated and lost many of these issues in state courts.”

“The Campaign tries to repackage these state-law claims as unconstitutional discrimination. Yet its allegations are vague and conclusory. It never alleges that anyone treated the Trump campaign or Trump votes worse than it treated the Biden campaign or Biden votes.

And federal law does not require poll watchers or specify how they may observe. It also says nothing about curing technical state-law errors in ballots. Each of these defects is fatal and the proposed Second Amended Complaint does not fix them. So the District Court properly denied leave to amend again.”

“Voters, not lawyers, choose the President. Ballots, not briefs, decide elections. The ballots here are governed by Pennsylvania election law.

No federal law requires poll watchers or specifies where they must live or how close they may stand when votes are counted. Nor does federal law govern whether to count ballots with minor state-law defects or let voters cure those defects.

[OCS: This is the core issue. The State of Pennsylvania did not have adequate safeguards against fraud, including bi-partisan monitoring of election proceedings. No, the State wants its electorate to accept possibly fraudulent votes and ignore the well-documented misbehavior cases. That the State is complicit in alleged illegal election activities is an issue that needs to be addressed in the legislature, which created the election rules and regulations, not the courts.]

Those are all issues of state law, not ones that we can hear. And earlier lawsuits have rejected those claims. Seeking to turn those state-law claims into federal ones, the Campaign claims discrimination.

But its alchemy cannot transmute lead into gold. The Campaign never alleges that any ballot was fraudulent or cast by an illegal voter. It never alleges that any defendant treated the Trump campaign or its votes worse than it treated the Biden campaign or its votes. Calling something discrimination does not make it so. The Second Amended Complaint still suffers from these core defects, so granting leave to amend would have been futile.

And there is no basis to grant the unprecedented injunction sought here. First, for the reasons already given, the Campaign is unlikely to succeed on the merits. Second, it shows no irreparable harm, offering specific challenges to many fewer ballots than the roughly 81,000-vote margin of victory. Third, the Campaign is responsible for its delay and repetitive litigation. Finally, the public interest strongly favors finality, counting every lawful voter’s vote, and not disenfranchising millions of Pennsylvania voters who voted by mail. Plus, discarding those votes could disrupt every other election on the ballot.

Response from the campaign…

My take…

The judge’s well-reasoned and well-written opinion is valid. That the campaign screwed up their first pleading and wasted their customary second pleading by withdrawing some of the arguments from the first speaks to inartful drafting and incompetence. That the campaign is fighting to further amend the pleading to cure previous defects is admirable but likely to be a loser in the courts.

The other important claim…

The argument that Pennsylvania’s mail-in voting law—Act 77—violated the commonwealth’s constitution that was filed by a group of Republican lawmakers and candidates appears to be in play, with Pennsylvania Commonwealth Judge Patricia McCullough, who ordered a halt in certification, noting, “Petitioners appear to have established a likelihood to succeed on the merits because petitioners have asserted the Constitution does not provide a mechanism for the legislature to allow for expansion of absentee voting without a constitutional amendment.”

In the legislature…

Republicans in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives plan to file a resolution “declaring the results of statewide electoral contests in the 2020 General Election to be in dispute.”

House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda…

THEREFORE, be it RESOLVED that the Pennsylvania House of Representatives—
1. Recognizes substantial irregularities and improprieties associated with mail-in balloting, pre-canvassing, and canvassing during the November 3, 2020 election; and
2. Disapproves of the infringement on the General Assembly’s authority pursuant to the United States Constitution to regulate elections; and
3. Disapproves of and disagrees with the Secretary of the Commonwealth’s premature certification of the results of the November 3, 2020 election regarding presidential electors; and
4. Declares that the selection of presidential electors and other statewide electoral contest results in this Commonwealth is in dispute; and
5. Urges the Secretary of the Commonwealth and the Governor to withdraw or vacate the certification of presidential electors and to delay certification of results in other statewide electoral contests voted on at the 2020 General Election; nd
6. Urges the United States Congress to declare the selection of presidential electors in this Commonwealth to be in dispute.

The first key date to remember is December 14, 2020 …

December 14, 2020: Electors Vote in Their States

Monday after the second Wednesday in December of presidential election years is set (3 U.S.C. §7) as the date on which the electors meet and vote. In 2020, the meeting is on December 14.

Electoral college delegations meet separately in their respective states and the District of Columbia at places designated by their state legislature.

The electors vote by paper ballot, casting one ballot for President and one for Vice President.

The electors count the results and then sign six certificates, each of which contains two lists, one of which includes the electoral votes for the President, the other, electoral votes for the Vice President, each of which includes the names of persons receiving votes and the number of votes cast for them. These are known as Certificates of the Vote, which the electors are required to sign.

They then pair the six Certificates of Ascertainment provided by the state governors with the Certificates of the Vote, and sign, seal, and certify them (3 U.S.C. §§8-10).

The six certificates are then distributed by registered mail as follows: (1) one certificate to the President of the U.S. Senate (the Vice President); (2) two certificates to the secretary of state (or equivalent officer) of the state in which the electors met; (3) two certificates to the Archivist; and (4) one certificate to the judge of the U.S. district court of the district in which the electors met (3 U.S.C. §11).

In other news…

Reading former CIA Director John Brennan’s comments on the assassination of a top Iranian nuclear scientist, allegedly the father of Iran’s nuclear weaponry, reminds me that Brennan appears to be a thoroughly disreputable douchebag and should probably be in prison for his various unconstitutional and criminal acts… including perjury and lying to Congress.

;

Let us not forget the joint CIA/State Department operation in Benghazi, Libya, where Brennan and Hillary Clinton were unconstitutionally and illegally transferring military-grade weaponry to Islamic terrorists to be used in Syria. Brennan has the blood of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans on his hands. And an unknown number of wounded who seemed to have disappeared into the swamp. No real investigations or an attempt to bring the attackers to justice. Most disgraceful is that President Obama was nowhere to be found, and lower-level functionaries like Leon Panetta may have ordered American forces to “stand down” rather than rescue Americans under attack.

Bottom line…

As for Biden, before we discuss tomorrow, let's finish today. Life is what happens next.

We are so screwed.

-- steve

“Nullius in verba.”-- take nobody's word for it!

“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.”-- George Bernard Shaw

“Progressive, liberal, Socialist, Marxist, Democratic Socialist -- they are all COMMUNISTS.”

“The key to fighting the craziness of the progressives is to hold them responsible for their actions, not their intentions.” – OCS

"The object in life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane." -- Marcus Aurelius

“A people that elect corrupt politicians, imposters, thieves, and traitors are not victims... but accomplices” -- George Orwell

“Fere libenter homines id quod volunt credunt." (The people gladly believe what they wish to.) ~Julius Caesar

“Describing the problem is quite different from knowing the solution. Except in politics." ~ OCS

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