GUEST POST BY DAVE MILLER

 

A Thank You to P.E. commenter and guest poster, Dave Miller, for this thoughtful contribution:

It has recently been reported in Forbes and elsewhere that after a ten month audit of the 2020 elections in Wisconsin, which President Trump lost by over 20,000 votes, no voter fraud has been found.

 

Here are a few excerpts from an exhaustive dive into those election results by the conservative Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty.

 

•   In all likelihood, more eligible voters cast ballots for Joe Biden than Donald Trump. We found limited instances where ineligible persons voted or attempted to cast ballots. We found no evidence of more than one vote being cast in the name of the same voter. And our analysis of the results and voting patterns does not give rise to an inference of fraud.

 

•   Donald Trump won communities that used Dominion voting machines with 57.2%, an increase from 2016. WILL’s review found that jurisdictions that used Dominion voting machines had no effect on the expected vote total.

 

Take a moment and let the results of this study sink in. Deep. Because these results essentially mirror the results we saw in Arizona. In both of these states, Former President Trump and his allies have, without any evidence, alleged widespread fraud. The reported results support the views from Secretaries of State across the land, from both political parties who under penalty of perjury, attested that our recent elections were free, fair and devoid of voter fraud.

 

Now, that’s not to say there were not problems.

 

As the Wisconsin report shows, there were times there, and in other states, where officials bent or even created new election procedures out of whole cloth, potentially breaking state and local laws. However, this was mostly what state officials felt was prudent given that we had to hold a national election in the middle of a pandemic.

 

However, this is the crux of the matter, to date… even with the anomalies brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic that caused political leaders in both conservative and left leaning states to change election procedures, audits show few people voted who were not entitled to vote, or voted multiple times.

 

Studies and audits also show that the widespread memes of dead people voting in the election are either false, or when it was found, mostly involved Republicans. Other studies and research lay waste to the claim of far-right conservative voters that millions of illegal voters stepped up to vote for and swing the election to Joe Biden. In the words of Lorraine Minnite, Professor of Public Policy at Rutgers University and reported by the Austin Statesman and other outlets, that view is “preposterous” and not supported by evidence or the facts.

 

In most of the closely contested battleground states, votes were recounted numerous times and cross checked against voter rolls to ensure only registered voters voted. Additionally, in spite of what bloggers have been saying around the country, we did not have more votes cast than we have registered voters.

 

Each time, those recounts, studies and audits confirmed the original results. Joe Biden won the presidency fair and square in the 2020 elections

 

In an election where by and large, Republicans did well, President Trump was unable to match results seen elsewhere in his party. Put another way, voters supported the GOP, but rejected President Trump.

 

All of this affirms that the 2020 elections were, in the words US Department of Homeland Security Under Secretary Chris Krebs, a Trump appointee, the “most secure in US history.” All of this shows that President Trump was not cheated out of an election win, but rather, he lost.

 

The question now is why those on the right will continue to believe and share, without evidence, the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from President Trump.

YOUR SUNDAY MOMENT OF ZEN

 

SATURDAY NIGHT DANCING

 

The Rockettes:

I was today years old when I found out...

that it's FOUR COLLY BIRDS, not "calling birds," in the Twelve Days of Christmas song.

In “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” one’s true love bestows, among other things, a partridge, two turtle doves, three French hens, and four calling birds. Right? Maybe not. The “calling” birds were originally “colly” birds, according to a blog post by Peter Armenti, the literature specialist for the Digital Reference Section at the Library of Congress. “Colly bird?” 

It’s essentially a black bird, Armenti said Wednesday. Although both “calling” and “colly” have appeared in versions of the song, “colly,” which is derived from the Old English word for coal, predates “calling” by more than a century, he wrote. And the reference is to the color of the bird, not its voice.

I'll never be the same!

By now...

 everyone's heard about the homeless, and probably mentally disturbed, man who set fire to the FAUX NOOZ Xmas tree.

To hear the NOOZers' unceasing reports on this unfortunate incident, you'd think the wrecked Xmas tree signified the end of the civilized world. They couldn't let it go because they love to feed their viewers on fear and victimhood. The head of the RNC even blamed President Biden for the vandalized tree! 

 "From its early reports, though, Fox News’s on-air team framed the tree burning within the context of a broader story that has been a continuous theme on the network, particularly during the Biden administration: an argument that criminality is on the rise in the United States." 

 FBI Report on Crime Shows Decline in Violent Crime Rate for Third Consecutive Year

 

GQPers SENDING THEIR BEST LETHAL WEAPONS MESSAGES AT CHRISTMAS

 

Because nothing represents the "Spirit of Christmas" more than lethal weapons in the hands of children and adults.

These Trumpublican Christmas cards represent their Savior's message of "Peace on Earth, Good Will to Men." 

Or not.

Isn't it beautiful to see children holding lethal weapons in front of a Xmas tree? 

"O Come, All Ye Locked and Loaded!" 

"Silencer Night; Holes in Body Night, Nothing's Calm, They're not Bright"

"Cocking Your Guns 'Round the Xmas Tree, Have a Bloody Holiday!"

"Deck the Halls with Belts of Ammo! Rat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat-tat-tat!"

"We Four Kids of Boebert Are Armed."

"Bang! Hear the Guns! Christmas is Here!"

"On the First Day of Xmas My Mother Gave to Me An AR Fiiiiiiifteen!"

"Chestnuts Roasting; Mamma Yells 'Open Fire!' "

"We Wish You A Gun-Filled Xmas and a shooty New Year!" --Xmas Song Titles by S.K.

Here, once again, are more "Christians" spreading the word of their "Prince of Peace," Jesus!

The happy, smiling faces of Trumpublicans holding lethal weapons 

in front of a Christmas tree!

Jeff Tiedrich

@itsJeffTiedrich

what kind of shithole party falls all over itself in a mad dash to see who can shove the most guns possible into the hands of their children

10:29 AM · Dec 8, 2021

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

@AOC

Tell me again where Christ said “use the commemoration of my birth to flex violent weapons for personal political gain”? lol @ all the years Republicans spent on cultural hysteria of society “erasing Christmas and it’s meaning” when they’re doing that all on their own

"The GOP has become the party of death."

We interrupt today's blogpost to present one of the GQP's Death & Destruction cheerleaders, Republican US Senator, Roger Wicker: 

 On Fox News, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) floats the idea of bombing Russian military assets -- and says he wouldn't even rule out a nuclear strike.

Because, as TFG once said,  we have nuclear weapons so "why can't we use them?" 

This is a US Senator going straight to the nuclear option to solve a problem, and TFG whined about not being able to do so while he was POTUS.

Why would any sane person EVER vote for a Trumpublican?  

How is the GOP’s coronavirus recklessness compatible with being pro-life?

Michael Gerson, WaPo:

"The core of the Trump movement has always been more interested in political conspiracies, White identity politics, persecution fantasies and disdain for elites. Remember that Trump himself was initially supportive of “partial-birth” abortion. As a presidential candidate, however, Trump issued one of U.S. history’s most effective political bribes: He set out a list of conservative judicial nominees for the Supreme Court, promised to pick from among them and then kept his word. 

 Now, with a conservative legal challenge to Roe nearing fruition, anti-abortion advocates are understandably pleased about their political alliance with the anti-government populists. Yet even after the effective overturn of Roe, years of political battles await at both the state and federal levels. And it is hard to see how a GOP increasingly dedicated to needless death can carry an antiabortion message. The effective end of Roe would be an ideal point for responsible pro-lifers to assert their position on abortion as part of a broader culture of life, including the unborn and their mothers, the old and ill, people with intellectual disabilities and refugees fleeing oppression. Instead, in the Trump era, the state of Texas is taking the messaging lead on the topic, ensuring that the antiabortion movement seems as radical, punitive and vicious as possible. 

 How can the anti-vaccine ideals of “my body, my choice” Republicanism — which refuses even the easiest and safest sacrifices to protect the life of a neighbor — coexist with a “culture of life”? One is a reckless purveyor of needless death. The other, at its best, is a movement of human rights. It is clear enough which is ascendant. The GOP has become the party of death."

Let's see The GOP is . . . 

For the death penalty  

Against universal health care  

Against sensible gun control  

Against setting a leadership example to mitigate the effects of Covid 

Against vaccine mandates

Against raising the minimum wage 

Against paid maternity/parental leave 

For laws outlawing mask mandates and distancing 

For characterizing Jan. 6 as just a bunch of tourist not worth investigating .

Indifferent to the lowering of American life expectancy, maternal, and child deaths 

Almost all "pro-life" folks really don't care about life AFTER birth. That said, how does a "pro-lifer" square his/her pro-life views with the fact that, after a child is born alive, it has a much greater chance of dying if it is around unvaccinated people, who can infect it with a deadly disease? 

How much longer before the Republican Party self-immolates? This is a really slow-burning fire but eventually, it's going to turn into a full-blown blaze. This is like the snake consuming itself from the tail. Will it take TFG  croaking, developing full-blown dementia, or some other medical condition to remove him from the scene? 

What does the GQP do after he's gone? He's made the the once relevant GOP into his brand. Without Trump, it just becomes a collection of lilliputian imitators with an abhorrent "zeitgeist." Naturally, the MAGA crowd has not considered that, not that I care. 

Of course, prison time could also do the trick. Whatever it is, I keep hoping that in the short or long run, his influence on America will wane. I have no hope for his supporters, they're irredeemable, 

But, as Trump's brand of politics shrinks, think about what Tolstoy, in War and Peace, says about General Kutuzov, the Russian general who was the victor in the war against Napoleon in 1812: He counselled his generals to allow "time and patience" to work against the enemy. 

We hope, in the meantime, that the nation doesn't disintegrate.

Well said, Representative Yarmuth

 

@RepJohnYarmuth, D-KY

I promise not everyone in Kentucky is an insensitive asshole.

Thomas Massie

@RepThomasMassie

Merry Christmas! ps. Santa, please bring ammo.

The above is a Christmas card sent out by  Trumpublican US Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky days after the tragic killing of four high school students and wounding of seven others by a 15-year old shooter in Michigan.

It's just another example of countless examples of how far into the sewer the Trumpublican Party has sunk.

Because nothing celebrates the Christmas spirit better than a family photo showing everyone proudly holding lethal weapons and asking Santa for "ammo."

Rep. John Yarmuth:

"I'm old enough to remember Republicans screaming that it was insensitive to try to protect people from gun violence after a tragedy," he added in a follow-up tweet. 

"Now they openly rub the murder of children in our faces like they scored a touchdown. 

Disgraceful."

‘It’s who they are’: gun-fetish photo a symbol of Republican abasement under Trump

Thomas Massie’s incendiary picture, days after a deadly school shooting in Michigan, seemed carefully calibrated to provoke

YOUR SUNDAY MOMENT OF ZEN

 

SATURDDAY NIGHT DANCING

 

MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE SAME EVENT

 

This was the AP (Zeke Miller) announcing jobs numbers in February 2018 while Trump was POTUS (no COVID problems or recovery from lockdown). 

The 200K jobs added was labeled "STRONG.":

This is the AP (Zeke Miller) announcing jobs numbers in December 2021 with Biden as POTUS (recovering from COVID lockdown.)

The 210,000 jobs added is labeled "SLUGGISH":

Explain, please.

The Auschwitz Memorial Just Defined The Current Republican Pary

 

The Auschwitz Memorial slammed a Fox host [Lara Logan] for comparing Fauci to a Nazi doctor, calling it a 'sad symptom of moral and intellectual decline'

"A sad symptom of moral and intellectual decline."

I couldn't have defined the GQP better.

Just look at the ongoing quarrel between U.S. Representatives Boebert and Ilhan Omar. Boebert labeled Omar a "terrorist," and part of the "jihad squad," implying a U.S. Representative is an enemy of the United States, all because she's a Muslim.

This is part of the "moral decline" stench permeating the current Republican/Trumpublican Party. The party that has been against an investigation into who and what was behind the worst attack on the U.S. Capitol since the War of 1812!

Why do you think that is? Could it be that some of the top dogs in Congress were involved? Or that the biggest one of all was?

The only time Trumpublicans make the news is when they're defying a legal subpoena; viciously maligning a fellow colleague, even one of their own party; or putting out a video showing them murdering a fellow colleague.

When they laid down with Donald J. Trump, we knew they'd be infested with his degeneracy and moral and intellectual decline.