The 2020 USA POTUS election politics, the civil war, and the world war (Part 1)

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The real challenge might be comparing these low numbers of isolated instances of mail-in ballot fraud to the broad systemic fraud voter suppression in in-person voting. Such as intentionally less availability (distance, number of poll places, given the same population density) / hours’ long wait times at polling locations based on the voter demographics.

I’m also curious whether it’s easier to catch these inspected ballots or easier to catch in-person individual voter fraud (there are also isolated instances of people voting multiple times or voting under multiple names at different polling places). If one is easier than the other to detect, it means the “caught” instances for one may appear relatively exaggerated compared to the other.

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This post is prompted by the interview Trump gave last weekend to Sharyl Attkisson. Sorry Trump fans; I’m a fan myself but sometimes too much is just too much:

First, who is Dan Coats? Coats was DNI from 2017 until last year. That is a long time for him to have sat on critical information which only now, recently, has been released thanks to new DNI appointee, Richard Grenell.

Ask yourself: how was Grenell able to accomplish in a matter of weeks something Coats could not get done in two years?

It’s yet another example of Trump’s incompetence and arrogance. It’s not an error rivaling the Jeff Sessions appointment catastrophe . . . but it certainly is in the same ballpark.

Trump arrived in Washington with a promise he would drain the swamp. But Trump had no conception of his inability to accomplish that goal alone. And far too many of his early appointments, which included even some Democrats, reflected only Trump’s incompetence and lack of understanding how Washington works.

People invested in the swamp are unlikely really fully to support or assist in its draining. Coats typifies that dilemma. He was and remains a Republican. But far too many Republicans, and nearly all Democrats, are swamp creatures now. And Trump was unaware of this.

Trump is learning, but much too slowly. Barr as a replacement for Sessions has helped Trump’s education along. Grenell in place of Coats . . . ditto. Yet we still have Wray, another deep state swamp creature, heading up the FBI. Nobody should wonder why revelations there have been so slow to emerge. Wray is a “company man” from WAY back!

The blunders above referenced are not ones which would have been committed by a genuine Conservative. President Reagan, for example, paid his dues before seeking our nation’s highest office. Reagan first spent eight years as Governor of California, a huge diverse state, and a wonderful learning opportunity for the future POTUS. By the time he finally reached the Oval Office, President Reagan already had learned how government works, and that made a positive difference as compared with Trump.

I’m not questioning here Trump’s sincerity. The man deserves credit for seeking to implement promises he made to us, his voters. But to fulfill those promises Trump needed a whole lot of help from the right people. More than three years is a long time to take to locate those people. We must hope Trump is able to win reelection. For him, a second term will be akin to Reagan’s first. He will reenter the office with far less naïveté than was so evident back in 2017.

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I’m not posting to take potshots at Trump, just being forthright. He deserves credit where due, so here is some:

Trump’s recent appointment of Kayleigh McEnany as press secretary is a home run. She is an extremely bright, highly educated (Harvard JD), very well spoken woman who prepares carefully each day. I have watched her in action and she is superb. This woman does not stand for the s**t dished out to her relentlessly by a wildly liberal, Trump hating, White House press corps. McEnany is a Conservative, not some sort of half-baked Republican, and it really shows and makes a positive difference. Kudos to Trump for this pick!

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I watch CNN occasionally just to see what the other side is promoting. I remember Kayleigh working as one of their token Reps at CNN. She was good then, but not as strong as we see now. (some Trump rubbing off).

Thanks shinobi for the interesting report above.

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Amusingly the NYT was against absentee ballot fraud before they were for it. But that was in 2012 when FL went for Obama by less than 1% and absentee voters were disproportionately Republican.

There is a bipartisan consensus that voting by mail, whatever its impact, is more easily abused than other forms. In a 2005 report signed by President Jimmy Carter and James A. Baker III, concluded, “Absentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud.” On the most basic level, absentee voting replaces the oversight that exists at polling places with something akin to an honor system.

Now when vote by mail is expected to increase turnout among the young, poor, minorities, and covid dead, NYT thinks is a great idea.

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Sure. No problemo.

But it might be my last post criticizing Trump after my jarring listening experience overnight last night. I probably should cease following Red Eye Radio. Broadcasting out of Texas, those guys (Eric and Gary) offer a larger dose of reality than I’m able easily to contemplate or even survive.

Last night was particularly troubling as they spoke at length regarding recent revelations surrounding the attacks on Trump from before the day of his inauguration. I detest Democrats so I instinctively want to blame them. But it was people who call themselves Republicans, every bit as much as Democrats, who perpetrated and perpetuated the phony allegations. My criticisms of Trump pale in significance when compared with the outsized malevolent forces arrayed against him back then. I had no clue. Most Americans still have no clue.

Most troubling, it all has worked. “The resistance”, with full cooperation of the Russians, has succeeded in blunting much of the Trump agenda. And with the all out cooperation of the American mainstream media, millions of Americans will never even learn what happened. Certainly they will not find out timely.

This level of “the ends justify the means” malevolence did not exist when I was younger. Or certainly if it did I was completely unaware. I think of the election in 1960, for example. It was hard fought and hotly contested. On election night the outcome was very close and there were serious and credible allegations of fraud in Illinois which could have altered the outcome. But Nixon conceded anyway, saying the good of the country was more important than a victory for him. Something like that would never, EVER, happen today!

I do not envision such selflessness as that being in the cards here in America any time soon. And we as a nation are the poorer as a result.

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The Rasmussen daily tracking poll has Trump’s positive number all the way down to 42%. This is a reliable, believable, poll. No BS.

Trump cannot defeat Biden with a Rasmussen number this low. I do not recall seeing his positive rating this low . . ever.

Were the election held today, Trump would lose for certain. It would not even be close.

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Yes, I listen to these guys also. (in & out, as I leave the radio on all night)

The Rasmussen poll bother’s me also. But the election is not today! :relaxed:

When the economy starts to pull up & Trump gets to talk to larger groups again, we should see improvement.

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Interesting. Same here, pattyb53 . . I do the same as you.

And last night’s discussion of the revelations was disconcerting. It was all so evil . . . you don’t think something that sinister and despicable could even happen in our country. But it actually did, as these revelations are making self-evident. Maybe the high level of evil is why it has taken so long for this stuff to emerge. At least now we know why the deep state redacted a lot of the things they did in those documents. How convenient and protective for them that concealment was!

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I think it’s more Trump that calls himself a Republican, elbowing in on the established Republican turf. If he could’ve started his own “MAGA” party he would’ve, and had as much ties with Republicans as he currently has with Democrat. But he needed to be affiliated with one of the two parties to even have a chance at being elected.

I thought it was pretty clear from the beginning that the opposition was more “outsider verses insiders” than “republican verses democrat”. Republican career politicians were just as petty, until well past the point of having any hope of derailing the Trump freight train. And even then, it was more that they accepted the bandwagon than jump on it - the current Senate only backs Trump because “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. (Which I continue to consider to be one of the biggest political blunders in history)

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There is a measure of accuracy in what you write. The Republican party is itself, of course, split. Trump’s faction, if you can call it that, would be more in line with (for example) the Freedom Caucus in the House.

But the despicable Republican scum referenced in my own recent posts are mostly (though not entirely) of the northeastern variety. As a Conservative, I have no option other than to support Republicans. But I certainly do not support the northeastern trash! They might just as well be Democrats from where I sit.

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We have vote-by-mail only in Washington state. Having voted by mail for 15 years now, I have to say that I really don’t like it unless it’s absolutely necessary (i.e. a lockdown is in progress). There is something to be said for making the effort to go out to the polling place and casting a ballot, you get a sense that democracy is in action. We have maybe 3 or 4 elections a year and I feel like I’m paying a bill when I fill out my ballot and mail it in.

If this is actually done in other states - learn from one of our mistakes. We only require that ballots be postmarked by election day, not that they be received by election day. This leads to weeks of uncertainty about who won, what ballot measures passed, etc. It’s annoying as all get out, and in this political climate in a Presidential election, it would be a disaster. Ballots should have to be received by election day, not postmarked on the date.

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Mail is so prone to fraud that the government just sent out $2 trillion in checks via mail.

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More mail fraud

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I posted about what has happened to Amy on the appropriate thread. My take here has to do more with the November election:

Right or wrong, I honestly believed Amy was a top choice for Biden to have at his side in November in the contest with Trump. I thought she would strengthen his victory chances considerably.

Obviously Mr. Floyd’s murder is tragic and simply beyond horrible. The entire country is riled up and with excellent cause.

But strictly from a political standpoint, the murder having taken Amy off the table as a VP choice could become a positive for Trump. My belief that she is (was) an excellent VP contender prompts this thinking. Biden’s VP choices have been narrowed. And for him because of his age, his VP selection is far more important than usually is the case.

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Political opposition to Trump is further narrowing his conduits to the voting public. The first and earliest blow was struck by the coronavirus when Trump’s legendary rallies simply became impossible to hold.

Now it’s Twitter. Suddenly, in this election year and as election day itself moves ever closer, Twitter has decided to “fact check” (LMAO) Trump’s tweets. The “fact checker” is, of course, some SF bay region ultra left wing crazy with a history of anti-Trump rantings going way back.

This is what Trump gets for once again relying on his political opposition for campaign support. Reliance by Trump on Twitter to get his message out is akin to America relying on China to provide critical medical supplies. It’s nuts!!

I dunno what Trump is gonna do about this situation. But he better come up with an answer quickly. The election is scarcely more that five months away. At this point Biden has the entire American mainstream media at his disposal, anxious to do his bidding and more than willing to conceal his many gaffes, and Trump has zilch.

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The FCC is going to look into revoking various search and social media platforms legal liability protection under 230 due to their “editorializing” rather than just allowing people to speak their mind. Twitter and Google both called out.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-preventing-online-censorship/

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Zuck is merely covering his posterior. He is a smart guy. He either knows the law or is well advised by his counsel . . . or both!

It was Marco Rubio who first raised the issue of legal jeopardy for Twitter. Rubio is correct. They have opened a can of worms Zuck wisely is seeking to avoid.

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legal issue?

Is the train of thought something like:
“I have a first amendment right to say whatever I want, even though it’s completely false and misleading! YOU don’t have any first amendment rights because… uhhhh… you don’t burn hundreds of millions of dollars of government funds golfing while the world burns, while funneling government funds back to properties and businesses you own! Also, I have a big sharpie, so that’s just how it is! The first amendment only applies if I think I can use it to help my 2020 campaign. Look at this big sharpie, my ‘signature’ is so BOLD! My cousin-third-removed was a legal professor at Havvard, one of the best professors. He said my sharpie signature is POWERFUL.”

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It really is a legal issue. Please refer to xerty’s post above my own. I did not want to repeat what he, quite correctly, posted.

This has been well covered by conservative media and, very simply, the law is the law and this one is quite clear. It’s not a big deal. Twitter has every right to “fact check” Trump. But they cannot both “fact check” Trump, or editorialize in any other manner, and hang onto their former “platform only” status. The two things are treated differently under long-existing law having no relationship whatsoever to President Trump.

BTW, Twitter’s jeopardy to which I refer here, and first highlighted by Marco Rubio, has nothing to do with Trump’s executive order.

Zuck has avoided the trap . . . at least so far. And he is pretty outspoken about this . . . wants nothing to do with it . . . understands the law.