Ponietz
Ponietz's JournalRepublicans have declared war on democracy itself
[link:https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/10/republicans-have-declared-war-democracy-itself/|
If you were gripped by a particularly naive hopefulness, you might have thought that President Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election would produce a brief moment of honesty and responsibility from the Republican Party. “We lost, and it hurts,” they might have said. “But let’s handle it like adults and show that we’re committed to democracy.”
But no. As the Trump presidency comes to a close, members of the party that has shown itself so incapable and unworthy of governing have one last card to play: They will do everything in their power to poison the American political system for years to come.
They’re doing so by spreading false claims about voter fraud, to convince their own base that the election is right now being stolen from Trump, its rightful winner. This is critical to understand: Republicans know that the majority of Americans are not persuaded by the lies and conspiracy theories they’re tossing around, nor are the courts that one after another are rejecting their preposterous lawsuits.
The target is Republican voters, and the goal is to light a fire of rage that they hope will burn for as long as Joe Biden is president.
And with just a few exceptions, the entire Republican Party and conservative media world are enthusiastically participating in the scam:
—Prominent Republicans in Congress, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.), and Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) have insinuated or stated outright that “illegal votes” are being counted across the country. “If Republicans don’t challenge and change the U.S. election system, there will never be another Republican president elected again,” said Graham.
—In a reversal of long-standing Justice Department policy, Attorney General William P. Barr told prosecutors that they could pursue allegations of “vote tabulation irregularities” while the counting is being completed, a move so blatantly partisan that the official in charge of the Justice Department’s Election Crimes Branch resigned in protest.
—Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel has instructed state party leaders and activists to echo Trump’s false claims of voter fraud.
—It has now become standard practice for any Republican who lost their election, no matter how badly, to claim it was because of fraud.
—Georgia Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, both headed for runoff elections in January, released a joint statement saying the Republican secretary of state has “failed to deliver honest and transparent elections” and demanding he resign. They provided precisely zero specifics or evidence for their claim; the fact that they didn’t win outright was apparently proof enough of fraud.
—Republican attorneys general from 10 states asked the Supreme Court to intervene in Pennsylvania to restrict the number of ballots being counted there.
—Pro-Trump conservative media has relentlessly promoted bogus stories of fraud. Rush Limbaugh flatly stated the new operating principle: “There’s simply no way Joe Biden was legitimately elected president.”
—For hours every night, Fox News viewers are fed the line that the election is being stolen, a claim repeated on lesser outlets such as Breitbart and One America News. As Lou Dobbs declared: “Many are trying to steal this election from President Trump. There is no doubt about it.”
Facebook is awash in right-wing misinformation and lies about voter fraud, which the platform’s algorithm is pushing in front of untold numbers of people.
—A new poll shows 70 percent of Republicans now believe that the election was not free and fair.
There is a benign — but utterly mistaken — way to think about what Republicans are doing right now on Trump’s behalf.
“What is the downside for humoring him for this little bit of time? No one seriously thinks the results will change,” one Republican official told The Post. Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) told CNN that GOP senators are privately saying: “They call me to say, ‘Congratulations, please convey my well wishes to the president-elect, but I can’t say that publicly yet.’”
But this is not merely a temporary bit of playacting to soothe the tender feelings of the toddler in the Oval Office. It will be at the heart of Republican strategy for the next four years.
Just as Republicans used the racist “birther” lie to tell themselves that Barack Obama was not a legitimate president, they will use the lie of a stolen election to say the same about Biden. Conspiracy theories, the belief that liberals cannot legitimately win or govern, and an utter lack of commitment to any democratic principle are not merely features of contemporary conservatism, they are becoming its very essence.
It is not enough for the GOP’s base to be disappointed in the results of the election and determined to do better next time. They must be enraged. For the conservative media, creating and feeding anger is a business model that goes back decades. For Republicans in Congress, one of the key functions the stolen election lie will serve is to rationalize their own misdeeds.
Because if Biden is an illegitimate usurper, then any methods are justified to oppose and hinder him, no matter how morally abhorrent or damaging to the country.
It is almost impossible to overstate how toxic this all is. Republicans are trying to destroy any commitment their voters have to the American system of government. They’re working to convince voters that any election that does not produce a Republican win, not just in 2020 but in the future, is inherently fraudulent and need not be acknowledged or respected.
This is not coming from the fringe, or a few intemperate voices, or just a corrupt president on his way out. It is the project of the entire Republican Party and conservative movement. And it is nothing short of an attack on democracy itself.
USPS data shows thousands of mailed ballots missed Election Day deadlines
Source: Washington Post
Nearly 7 percent of ballots in U.S. Postal Service sorting facilities on Tuesday were not processed on time for submission to election officials, according to data the agency filed Wednesday in federal court, potentially leaving hundreds of thousands of ballots caught in the mail system during an especially tight presidential race.
The Postal Service reported the timely processing — which includes most mail-handling steps outside of pickup and delivery — of 93.3 percent of ballots on Election Day, its best processing score in several days, but still well below the 97-percent target that postal and voting experts say the agency should hit.
The Postal Service processed 115,630 ballots on Tuesday, a volume much lower than in recent days after weeks of warnings about chronic mail delays. Of that number, close to 8,000 ballots were not processed on time, a small proportion but one that could factor heavily in states such as Michigan and Wisconsin, which do not accept ballots after Election Day and could be decided by a few thousand votes.
Earlier Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the District of Columbia had ordered the Postal Service to sweep 12 postal processing facilities that cover 15 states for ballots. But the agency rebuffed that order and said it would stick to its own inspection schedule, which voting rights advocates worried was too late in the day for found ballots to make it to vote counters.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/11/03/election-ballot-delays-usps/
Is there one honorable US attorney left?
Daniela Mercury/A Primera Vista
When I had nothing I wanted
Quando não tinha nada eu quis
When everything was absence I waited
Quando tudo era ausência esperei
When I was cold I shivered
Quando tive frio tremi
When I had courage I called
Quando tive coragem liguei
When letter arrived I opened
Quando chegou carta abri
When I heard Prince I danced
Quando ouvi Prince dancei
When the eye shone, I understood
Quando o olho brilhou, entendi
When I created wings, I flew
Quando criei asas, voei
When you called me I came
Quando me chamou eu vim
When I realized I was here
Quando dei por mim tava aqui
When I found you, I got lost
Quando lhe achei, me perdi
When I saw you, I fell in love
Quando vi você, me apaixonei
When I had nothing I wanted
Quando não tinha nada eu quis
When everything was absence I waited
Quando tudo era ausência esperei
When I was cold I shivered
Quando tive frio tremi
When I had courage I called
Quando tive coragem liguei
When letter arrived I opened
Quando chegou carta abri
When I heard Salif Keita I danced
Quando ouvi Salif Keita dancei
When the eye shone, I understood
Quando o olho brilhou, entendi
When I created wings, I flew
Quando criei asas, voei
When you called me I came
Quando me chamou eu vim
When I realized I was here
Quando dei por mim tava aqui
When I found you, I got lost
Quando lhe achei, me perdi
When I saw you, I fell in love
Quando vi você, me apaixonei
GA: Ossoff brings the hammer to Perdue
[link:https://twitter.com/thepubliususa/status/1321642895888273408?s=21|
Justice Thomas' wife boosts unsupported claims against Biden
[link:https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-clarence-thomas-media-amy-coney-barrett-social-media-d7df89f52e02c13ec0d2784a54cdc7f3|
The wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is using her Facebook page to amplify unsubstantiated claims of corruption by Joe Biden.
...
Last week, she reposted a video that features Trump personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and the headline, “The Biden Crime Family: How They Made Millions.”
Again asking people to share the link, Thomas wrote, “The mainstream media does not want people to know the facts of what this video reveal.”
On Oct. 14, she pointed followers to an attack on philanthropist George Soros. “Who is really running the Democrat Party? The Soros family,” the shared link says, featuring photos of Soros relations with Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton.
...
?1603471238|Multiple reports of a low-flying plane, a flash and then the Luna fire
Andrew Sandoval, who lives in Luna Canyon, thinks he knows what started the now 9,000 acre Luna fire. The fire was first reported Saturday evening (Oct. 18) burning just a couple of miles from Chacon, New Mexico. Two days later, the fire remains zero percent contained, burning through hard to reach terrain, pushed by dry, hot and breezy conditions.
Sandoval was born and raised in the area and says he knows the deep canyons, ridges, forests and streams well. He grew up hunting and fishing them.
On Saturday evening (Oct. 18), at dusk around 7 p.m., Sandoval heard the drone of a big plane flying low up the canyon. “It wasn’t a Cessna, that’s for sure,” said Sandoval, who retired from New Mexico Department of Game and Fish.
The plane had its lights on for night and was going slow. “I thought what in the world is going on,” he said. It wasn’t the first time he had seen a big plane flying up that way. About a year ago, he saw another one, flying the same route, he estimates only 300 feet off the ground.
I live southwest of this fire. For the past 2 years, about 1x week, C-130 planes have flown low over my village. I conjectured it was military pilot training for mountainous conditions but have been unable to learn anything else about it. This looks like the early stages of denial/cover-up.
Dump supporter pulls all stops in last 2 weeks
This November’s election, we’ve seen vandalism against political signs and even theft, but on Albuquerque family’s sign was stolen in a manner that shocked them. This family woke up to two surprises: their political sign was stolen and secondly, a naked man took off with it.
“We were at home sleeping in our beds when this transpired,” said Albuquerque local Kathryn Stuart.
For the first time ever, Stuart and her family put up a political sign in their yard. But over the weekend, this sign went missing. Stuart and her seven-year-old son checked their Ring camera to find out what happened and well, saw too much.
“There is a gentleman who is not wearing a stitch at all, not even shoes, who strolls as bold as he pleases up our driveway, pauses for a moment, looks right into the camera, and steals our Biden/Harris sign,” said Stuart. “It doesn’t come out right away, easily so you see him jerk quite angrily in the video and walks away, holding our sign.”
[link:https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/video-naked-man-steals-biden-harris-sign-from-albuquerque-yard/|
"I ran political advertising for Twitter. It's time for platforms to mute Trump."
[link:https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/10/19/twitter-mute-donald-trump/|
In just the past week, President Trump has retweeted a QAnon conspiracy theory alleging that Joe Biden and Barack Obama had SEAL Team 6 killed, called on supporters to form an army of poll watchers, asserted repeatedly that mailing in your ballot will result in a rigged election and tweeted four times in 11 minutes falsely tying unrest in Portland, Ore., to Biden.
Trump’s place as the first Twitter president is secure. He has used the platform to govern via tweeted policy announcements, to berate adversaries both domestic and abroad, to communicate with (and occasionally disparage) his own administration officials and to exhort his supporters to action. Trump has also effectively used Twitter to distract, deflect and drive the news narrative nearly every day since he descended the golden escalator in Trump Tower to launch his campaign in 2015.
...
This is not unprecedented. Some nations impose a “silence period” before elections, during which campaigns pause all television and digital advertising (outside of get-out-the-vote activities). India, a nation with a sad history of violence between people and parties, uses this cooling-off period to allow voters to contemplate their decision without the cacophony of campaign communications.
In this case, however, the cooling-off period is necessary for the one candidate whose apparent sole motivation is to sow chaos and confusion around the ongoing election. Trump has already told his most dangerous supporters to “stand by.” Twitter and Facebook shouldn’t allow him to use their platforms to give violent actors the green light.
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Gender: MaleHometown: NM
Current location: Taos
Member since: Thu Jun 28, 2018, 07:04 PM
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