Voter Suppression & Election Theft by the Republican Party

[pnwguy]

Jan 7, 2022 14:44:37 GMT Bact PhD said:

So true! And yet they snark about the promiscuous college kids!!

To be fair, an active non-exclusive sex life after menopause and/or sterilization has fewer negative social effects. If they want to have their own version of Roman orgies, maybe they won't be uptight Karens and Kens, bothering the rest of us.

[goldenvalley]

Jan 7, 2022 15:57:27 GMT pnwguy said:

Jan 7, 2022 14:44:37 GMT Bact PhD said:

So true! And yet they snark about the promiscuous college kids!!

To be fair, an active non-exclusive sex life after menopause and/or sterilization has fewer negative social effects. If they want to have their own version of Roman orgies, maybe they won't be uptight Karens and Kens, bothering the rest of us.

If they have sex with young enough women, these Viagra powered dudes can father children.  Maybe they have enough money to support the children or maybe they'll just say she was a slut and it can be anyone's child.  

[LFC]

Cyber Ninjas is no more! They were just hit with a $50,000/day fine for refusing to turn records over. Now they're desperately throwing out everybody and everything to try to say there's no entity left to comply.

The hearing Thursday, according to the Arizona Republic’s report, was a mess: Jack Wilenchik, the attorney for Cyber Ninjas, tried to remove himself from the case, saying that he had not been paid, but Maricopa Superior Court Judge John Hannah wasn’t hearing it.

In August, Hannah had ordered Cyber Ninjas to turn over records from the Republican-controlled state Senate’s audit to the newspaper, and he found the company in contempt Thursday for failing to do so. Three days prior, the paper noted, an appeals court ordered Cyber Ninjas to pay $31,000 in legal fees for the Republic.

The newspaper initially sought a $1,000 daily fine for the missing records, but Hannah bumped that up 50-fold to $50,000.

In the same hearing, Wilenchik referred to Doug Logan — the conspiracy–theory promoting CEO of the company — as the “former” CEO. The judge said that added “to the body of facts suggesting here that there is an intention to leave the Cyber Ninjas entity as an empty piñata for all of us to swing at.”

Cyber Ninjas did appear to be emptying out Thursday. “Doug Logan and the rest of the employees have been let go and Cyber Ninjas is being shut down,” a spokesperson for the company told The Guardian separately. (It’s unclear how many people worked at the firm besides Logan in the first place.)

At several points, according to the Republic’s report, the hearing grew “awkward.”

Read the rest. And I suspect the founder and CEO (apparently former CEO) is in this judge's sights.

[goldenvalley]

Jan 7, 2022 16:22:31 GMT LFC said:

Cyber Ninjas is no more! They were just hit with a $50,000/day fine for refusing to turn records over. Now they're desperately throwing out everybody and everything to try to say there's no entity left to comply.

The hearing Thursday, according to the Arizona Republic’s report, was a mess: Jack Wilenchik, the attorney for Cyber Ninjas, tried to remove himself from the case, saying that he had not been paid, but Maricopa Superior Court Judge John Hannah wasn’t hearing it.

In August, Hannah had ordered Cyber Ninjas to turn over records from the Republican-controlled state Senate’s audit to the newspaper, and he found the company in contempt Thursday for failing to do so. Three days prior, the paper noted, an appeals court ordered Cyber Ninjas to pay $31,000 in legal fees for the Republic.

The newspaper initially sought a $1,000 daily fine for the missing records, but Hannah bumped that up 50-fold to $50,000.

In the same hearing, Wilenchik referred to Doug Logan — the conspiracy–theory promoting CEO of the company — as the “former” CEO. The judge said that added “to the body of facts suggesting here that there is an intention to leave the Cyber Ninjas entity as an empty piñata for all of us to swing at.”

Cyber Ninjas did appear to be emptying out Thursday. “Doug Logan and the rest of the employees have been let go and Cyber Ninjas is being shut down,” a spokesperson for the company told The Guardian separately. (It’s unclear how many people worked at the firm besides Logan in the first place.)

At several points, according to the Republic’s report, the hearing grew “awkward.”

Read the rest. And I suspect the founder and CEO (apparently former CEO) is in this judge's sights.

The grift has run its natural course.  All the true believers of the Big Lie should be angry that they got taken for a ride by a group of people who had no expertise in anything but raking in money for themselves. But of course they won't.  True Believers will know the Deep State prevailed once again.  

[jackd]

It probably won't make a bit of difference to the true believers; just another example of the deep state's persecution of patriots.

[LFC]

She says she isn't leaving due to political pressure. Bold of "small group" mine.

A Wisconsin state senator who stood up to attacks on the 2020 election results from other Republicans announced Friday that she will not seek another term in office.

State Sen. Kathy Bernier (R) said in a statement that “no one has forced me out and politics has not played a role in my decision,” but the announcement came just a few weeks after she joined a small group of Republicans telling the truth about 2020.

Bernier took aim last month at the partisan investigation of the 2020 performed by Michael Gableman, a former state supreme court justice who has stacked his review with investigators who’ve pushed lies about the 2020 election, and who has himself entertained theories about widespread voter fraud, despite lacking any evidence. Bernier called such claims “a charade.”

“No election is perfect, but there is no evidence of intentional malfeasance, no evidence that the election in 2020 wasn’t accurate,” the state senator said. She separately suggested that Gableman “wrap up sooner rather than later, because the longer we keep this up, the more harm we’re going to do for Republicans.”

[LFC]

Trump is bashing another Republican who openly failed to be faithful.

Former President Trump on Monday blasted out a tirade aimed at Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) after the GOP senator said during an interview that the 2020 president election was “fair” and that Trump’s bogus claims of election fraud are, indeed, false.

In a screed issued Monday morning, Trump accused Rounds of going “woke” because the GOP senator came out against the Big Lie of a “stolen” election.

“Is he crazy or just stupid?” Trump asked, while pushing election fraud falsehoods.

“The only reason he did this is because he got my endorsement and easily won his state in 2020, so now he thinks he has time, and those are the only ones, the weak ones, that will break away,” Trump said.

“Even though his election will not be coming up for 5 years, I will never endorse this jerk again,” Trump added.

The former president issued his irate rebuke of Rounds a day after the GOP senator appeared on ABC News, and said, factually, that the 2020 election was “fair” and that Trump did not win the presidency.

“While there were some irregularities, there were none of the irregularities which would have risen to the point where they would have changed the vote outcome in a single state,” Rounds said. “The election was fair, as fair as we have seen. We simply did not win the election, as Republicans, for the presidency.”

When asked whether Trump should be able to run for another term as president — despite his role in inciting the insurrection, his impeachment and the pending legal issues against him — Rounds said those questions were best left to the courts, but noted that Trump was no longer shielded in the same way he was while president.

[goldenvalley]

Jan 10, 2022 17:59:11 GMT LFC said:

She says she isn't leaving due to political pressure. Bold of "small group" mine.

A Wisconsin state senator who stood up to attacks on the 2020 election results from other Republicans announced Friday that she will not seek another term in office.

State Sen. Kathy Bernier (R) said in a statement that “no one has forced me out and politics has not played a role in my decision,” but the announcement came just a few weeks after she joined a small group of Republicans telling the truth about 2020.

Bernier took aim last month at the partisan investigation of the 2020 performed by Michael Gableman, a former state supreme court justice who has stacked his review with investigators who’ve pushed lies about the 2020 election, and who has himself entertained theories about widespread voter fraud, despite lacking any evidence. Bernier called such claims “a charade.”

“No election is perfect, but there is no evidence of intentional malfeasance, no evidence that the election in 2020 wasn’t accurate,” the state senator said. She separately suggested that Gableman “wrap up sooner rather than later, because the longer we keep this up, the more harm we’re going to do for Republicans.”

Sooner or later these folks get tired of the death threats, threats against their families, and general nastiness towards them is all walks of life.  I can't say that I blame them.  

[pnwguy]

Jan 10, 2022 18:42:52 GMT goldenvalley said:

Jan 10, 2022 17:59:11 GMT LFC said:

She says she isn't leaving due to political pressure. Bold of "small group" mine.

Sooner or later these folks get tired of the death threats, threats against their families, and general nastiness towards them is all walks of life.  I can't say that I blame them.  

White Americans aren't used to having to deal with fascist threats.  Minorities, especially African Americans have endured decades of such treatment, so they understand what resistance is like, and the cost of such. The civil rights struggle was ultimately victorious because the establishment majority was less motivated.  The enthusiasm factor was with the civil rights fighters.

So in these initial battles, the fascists will win.  Competent public servants no longer have the energy to fight, when the enthusiasm of the thugs is greater.  The "good guys" aren't in battle mode, while the grievance thugocracy has been spoiling for a brawl for years.

[Bact PhD]

Jan 10, 2022 19:00:10 GMT pnwguy said:

So in these initial battles, the fascists will win.  Competent public servants no longer have the energy to fight, when the enthusiasm of the thugs is greater.  The "good guys" aren't in battle mode, while the grievance thugocracy has been spoiling for a brawl for years.

Not only has the grievance thugocracy been spoiling for a brawl for decades, a significant subset of said thugocracy truly believes that this brawl will be for the End Times…

[goldenvalley]

Jan 10, 2022 19:00:10 GMT pnwguy said:

Jan 10, 2022 18:42:52 GMT goldenvalley said:

Sooner or later these folks get tired of the death threats, threats against their families, and general nastiness towards them is all walks of life.  I can't say that I blame them.  

White Americans aren't used to having to deal with fascist threats.  Minorities, especially African Americans have endured decades of such treatment, so they understand what resistance is like, and the cost of such. The civil rights struggle was ultimately victorious because the establishment majority was less motivated.  The enthusiasm factor was with the civil rights fighters.

So in these initial battles, the fascists will win.  Competent public servants no longer have the energy to fight, when the enthusiasm of the thugs is greater.  The "good guys" aren't in battle mode, while the grievance thugocracy has been spoiling for a brawl for years.

Good point.  Most whites don't feel threatened enough to find it necessary to endure abuse to defend or reform anything. I'm not sure what it will take to get people to recognize that threats to the American system of government is a direct threat to them when mostly they don't feel the weight of the future on their shoulders.  Sort of like climate change is engendering a lot more activism among younger demographics that will be dealing with the results for a much longer time than among establishment types who are still dealing in theory with no sense of immediacy.

[pnwguy]

Jan 10, 2022 19:06:15 GMT goldenvalley said:

Jan 10, 2022 19:00:10 GMT pnwguy said:

White Americans aren't used to having to deal with fascist threats.  Minorities, especially African Americans have endured decades of such treatment, so they understand what resistance is like, and the cost of such. The civil rights struggle was ultimately victorious because the establishment majority was less motivated.  The enthusiasm factor was with the civil rights fighters.

So in these initial battles, the fascists will win.  Competent public servants no longer have the energy to fight, when the enthusiasm of the thugs is greater.  The "good guys" aren't in battle mode, while the grievance thugocracy has been spoiling for a brawl for years.

Good point.  Most whites don't feel threatened enough to find it necessary to endure abuse to defend or reform anything. I'm not sure what it will take to get people to recognize that threats to the American system of government is a direct threat to them when mostly they don't feel the weight of the future on their shoulders.  Sort of like climate change is engendering a lot more activism among younger demographics that will be dealing with the results for a much longer time establishment types are still dealing in theory with no sense of immediacy.

We may have to endure several years of "occupation", like Holland under the Nazis, before there can be much resistance.  But as we saw with the Dumpster presidency, a tremendous amount of damage can take place in a few years of grift and thugocracy.  

[LFC]

Jan. 6 committee turns up forged documents declaring Trump the election winner in pivotal states: report

The House select committee has been investigating Donald Trump's efforts to pressure individual states to declare him the winner of the 2020 election.

Lawmakers investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection have obtained thousands of records from state officials -- including forged certificates declaring him the winner in both Arizona and Michigan -- and interviewed numerous witnesses, including the Democratic secretaries of state in each of those states, reported Politico.

Here's some of the guilty parties. LOCK THEM UP! LOCK THEM UP!

The Republican National Committee official alleged to have sent a forged election certificate declaring Donald Trump won the 2020 election dodged questions following revelations the document has been obtained by Congress.

"Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's office provided the U.S. House committee that's investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection a certificate, signed by 16 Republicans, falsely claiming Donald Trump won Michigan's electoral votes," The Detroit News reported Monday. "It remained unclear Monday whether the committee was specifically probing the GOP electors certificate. But the records indicate the panel is looking into the effort to overturn Michigan's 2020 presidential election, a battleground state Democrat Joe Biden won by 154,000 votes or 3 percentage points."

The newspaper obtained the documents in an open records request.

"According to a Dec. 14, 2020, memorandum, provided to the Jan. 6 committee, Kathy Berden, a Republican national committeewoman from Michigan, sent the GOP electors certificate to the U.S. Senate, the U.S. archivist, Benson's office and Robert Jonker, the chief judge of U.S. District Court for Michigan's Western District," the newspaper reported.

The newspaper asked why the group submitted the fake certificate.

"I can't comment on anything like that. That was a long time ago," Berden said.

New Michigan Republican Party co-Chairwoman Meshawn Maddock, Shelby Township Clerk Stan Grot and the party's grassroots vice chairwoman, Marian Sheridan also allegedly signed the document.

[goldenvalley]

Jan 10, 2022 21:56:41 GMT LFC said:

Jan. 6 committee turns up forged documents declaring Trump the election winner in pivotal states: report

The House select committee has been investigating Donald Trump's efforts to pressure individual states to declare him the winner of the 2020 election.

Lawmakers investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection have obtained thousands of records from state officials -- including forged certificates declaring him the winner in both Arizona and Michigan -- and interviewed numerous witnesses, including the Democratic secretaries of state in each of those states, reported Politico.

Here's some of the guilty parties. LOCK THEM UP! LOCK THEM UP!

The Republican National Committee official alleged to have sent a forged election certificate declaring Donald Trump won the 2020 election dodged questions following revelations the document has been obtained by Congress.

"Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson's office provided the U.S. House committee that's investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection a certificate, signed by 16 Republicans, falsely claiming Donald Trump won Michigan's electoral votes," The Detroit News reported Monday. "It remained unclear Monday whether the committee was specifically probing the GOP electors certificate. But the records indicate the panel is looking into the effort to overturn Michigan's 2020 presidential election, a battleground state Democrat Joe Biden won by 154,000 votes or 3 percentage points."

The newspaper obtained the documents in an open records request.

"According to a Dec. 14, 2020, memorandum, provided to the Jan. 6 committee, Kathy Berden, a Republican national committeewoman from Michigan, sent the GOP electors certificate to the U.S. Senate, the U.S. archivist, Benson's office and Robert Jonker, the chief judge of U.S. District Court for Michigan's Western District," the newspaper reported.

The newspaper asked why the group submitted the fake certificate.

"I can't comment on anything like that. That was a long time ago," Berden said.

New Michigan Republican Party co-Chairwoman Meshawn Maddock, Shelby Township Clerk Stan Grot and the party's grassroots vice chairwoman, Marian Sheridan also allegedly signed the document.

Looking more and more like a coup...not the military powered takeover that most people think of when they see "coup" but no less a coup. Jan. 6 was the last gasp attempt to delay certification of the various states' electoral votes so they could produce these faked documents as being the real results.  

[LFC]

[LFC]

Jan 10, 2022 21:56:41 GMT LFC said:

Jan. 6 committee turns up forged documents declaring Trump the election winner in pivotal states: report

Maddow now reports that 5 different states produced forged certifications that Trump won their election and submitted them to federal authorities. This isn't a smoking gun, it's a smoking arsenal.

What at first looked like a few wackos faking state documents to pretend that Donald Trump won the 2020 election is beginning to look more and more like an orchestrated campaign. Earlier this week, Politico reported that the National Archives received fake certificates of ascertainment from both Michigan and Arizona shortly after Trump’s defeat. Now, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow has gotten her hands on five forgeries—and has noted that each of them look very similar. “It wasn’t one state. It wasn’t three states where they did this. It was at least five states where we have now obtained forged documents created by Republicans,” Maddow said Tuesday night. “They sent them into the government as if they were real documents... They actually created these fake documents purporting to be the real certifications of them as electors.” The MSNBC host then noted something suspicious: “They all match, exactly. Same formatting, same font, same spacing, almost the exact same wording. All of them.”

So who are the traitors that supplied the original?

[LFC]

Already dated. Now it's 7 forged certificates. Republicans in my state of PA are responsible for one of them.

American Oversight has obtained copies of phony electoral vote certificates from seven states that were submitted to Congress as part of the failed attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The fake electoral certificates were assembled by groups of Trump supporters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin who sought to replace the valid presidential electors from their state — who had been chosen by voters in free and fair elections — with bogus slates of pro-Trump electors.

None of the certificates contains any indication that they list illegitimate slates of electors not chosen by those states’ voters.

[goldenvalley]

Jan 12, 2022 19:54:51 GMT LFC said:

Already dated. Now it's 7 forged certificates. Republicans in my state of PA are responsible for one of them.

American Oversight has obtained copies of phony electoral vote certificates from seven states that were submitted to Congress as part of the failed attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The fake electoral certificates were assembled by groups of Trump supporters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin who sought to replace the valid presidential electors from their state — who had been chosen by voters in free and fair elections — with bogus slates of pro-Trump electors.

None of the certificates contains any indication that they list illegitimate slates of electors not chosen by those states’ voters.

I am just catching up with this news.  Wow!  This is looking far more organized than typical Trump make it up on the fly behavior.  This clearly is an attempted coup.  

[LFC]

Jan 12, 2022 19:58:38 GMT goldenvalley said:

Jan 12, 2022 19:54:51 GMT LFC said:

Already dated. Now it's 7 forged certificates. Republicans in my state of PA are responsible for one of them.

I am just catching up with this news.  Wow!  This is looking far more organized than typical Trump make it up on the fly behavior.  This clearly is an attempted coup.  

Meadows and Navarro laid it out quite clearly:

Step 1: Fire up a big protest.

Step 2: Get a bunch of congressional Republicans to give cover by refusing the slates of electors from close states won by Biden which had Republican legislatures.

Step 3: Have Pence refuse those same states to buy time to allow the Republican legislatures time.

Step 4: Republican state legislatures send alternate Trump supporting slates of electors. (These forgeries were in support of that.)

Step 5: Gum everything up horrendously, keep Trump in office, and wait until SCOTUS awards him the White House.

None of these things are conjecture anymore.

[pnwguy]

Jan 12, 2022 19:58:38 GMT goldenvalley said:

Jan 12, 2022 19:54:51 GMT LFC said:

Already dated. Now it's 7 forged certificates. Republicans in my state of PA are responsible for one of them.

I am just catching up with this news.  Wow!  This is looking far more organized than typical Trump make it up on the fly behavior.  This clearly is an attempted coup.  

Very few mob bosses were noted for their brilliance or cunning.  But they were peerless at amorality and shameless self-interest at whatever human cost was necessary to get their way.  They would "hire the best people", to do their killing, torture, and terror.

Sound like anyone we know?

[LFC]

Democrats are pushing for a floor vote on voters' rights. Kyrsten Sinema, one of the most self-serving Democrats in Congress, is suddenly waffling from her outright rejection of a filibuster carve-out. I guess being primaried because there's now an endless loop snippet of her destroying democracy wasn't in her plans.

Newsflash: perfidious silly person Kysten Sinema has now told a friendly reporter at Politico that she’s “weighing” or “considering” or some other chin-scratch-full but meaningless gerund that she may go to the floor of the Senate and give a speech denouncing any changes to Senate rules that will allow Democrats thin majority to do anything. This as President Biden goes to the Senate to press his case for a rule change that will allow democracy-protecting legislation to come to a vote.

This is why you hold votes. This. Is. Why. You. Hold. Votes. Talking through friendly, conventional-wisdom-generating reporters and refusing to make yourself accountable or available to voters is just a way of shadow boxing accountability and never having to say where you actually, definitively stand. It is a way of holding the floor and the attention perpetually without actually finally acting. It is in its way its own virtual filibuster. No one does or in any case should care what explanation Kyrsten Sinema gives for what she’s doing. She is a silly and perfidious person. The only thing that matters is what she does. And that means how she votes.

I’m not terribly optimistic that holding a vote on this is going to change the fundamental issue. But again this is why you vote. Tell us specifically whether you will vote to maintain the rules even at the cost of fundamental protections for the republic itself. Once you’ve made your choice known everyone can make their own decisions accordingly.

I guess we'll see how her and Manchin vote but at least they'll be on the record.

[LFC]

TPM is following the action. Pelosi is taking it straight to Manchin.

Pelosi Hopes Manchin Will ‘Defend His Bill’ And Bring It To The Floor

Asked during a press conference where the Freedom to Vote Act is heading in terms of actual passage, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) remarked that the bill included Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) input.

“This bill is a reflection of some of his input and hopefully he will defend his bill in terms of having it brought to the floor,” Pelosi said.

Manchin, however, has yet to show signs of softening his resistance to a filibuster carveout for voting rights legislation.

[goldenvalley]

There are 16 Republicans sitting in the Senate that voted for extension of the Voting Rights Act back in 2006.  You'd think they would at least support the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act that would reverse the Shelby Supreme Court ruling (2013) that abolished the requirement that states/counties that had history of racial discrimination had to get DOJ approval before implementing laws affecting voting rights and elections.  I assume this is why Schumer combined the two bills into one to take to the Senate floor.

[LFC]

Jan 13, 2022 17:46:13 GMT goldenvalley said:

There are 16 Republicans sitting in the Senate that voted for extension of the Voting Rights Act back in 2006.  You'd think they would at least support the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act that would reverse the Shelby Supreme Court ruling (2013) that abolished the requirement that states/counties that had history of racial discrimination had to get DOJ approval before implementing laws affecting voting rights and elections.  I assume this is why Schumer combined the two bills into one to take to the Senate floor.

Gr-Assley. And Little Lindsey. Yeah, good luck with that.

[LFC]

Sinema's potential primary challenger is already digging in the spurs.

Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), who has floated a potential primary challenge to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), directly took aim at her re-stated opposition to a filibuster carveout for voting rights legislation.

“Today, the House showed where it stands: We won’t shrink from protecting our democracy and the voting rights of all Americans,” Gallego said. “It’s past time for the U.S. Senate — and Sen. Sinema — to do the same.”

So, Kyrsty, are you going to prance up in a ridiculous outfit and give a cute thumbs down again?