5333 private links
As different states and municipalities across the country adopt ranked-choice voting, it’s become obvious this mind-boggling election system deserves a new name: rigged-choice voting. //
What’s behind the RCV takeover? As The Federalist has previously reported, partisan Democratic activists and moderate Republicans are pushing RCV as a legal mechanism to push out more revolutionary (read: populist) candidates in favor of establishment-backed contenders. As Project Veritas has documented, the moderate, nominal Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski was behind the campaign to change Alaska’s primary to an RCV system, ensuring the defeat of her Trump-backed challenger Kelly Tshibaka. Had Alaska not implemented RCV, Tshibaka likely would have defeated Murkowski in the primary. //
The Foundation for Government Accountability notes that ranked-choice voting causes ballot exhaustion (when a ballot is cast but does not count toward the end election result), diminishes voter confidence, and lags election results. It can take weeks or even months for a ranked-choice race to be counted, threatening the security of the process.
If Americans desire democracy and election integrity, rigged-choice voting is clearly not the way to go.
Scoundrels have always been in the halls of power, along with amateurs, the inept and the deranged. But these days the criminality of some political leaders has reached levels worthy of the tyrants of antiquity. And the ineptitude of those in power now has much graver consequences due to globalization, technology, the complexity of society, as well as the speed with which things happen. //
No, in a kleptocracy criminal behavior is not individual, opportunistic, or sporadic, but rather collective, systematic, strategic, and permanent. It is a system in which all the high-level government officials are complicit, where they deliberately work to enrich themselves, and then use their accumulated wealth to perpetuate themselves in power. For the kleptocrats the common good and people’s needs are secondary and only looked at when they are at the service of their primary goal: to fatten their fortunes and make sure they stay in power. //
No, in a kleptocracy criminal behavior is not individual, opportunistic, or sporadic, but rather collective, systematic, strategic, and permanent. It is a system in which all the high-level government officials are complicit, where they deliberately work to enrich themselves, and then use their accumulated wealth to perpetuate themselves in power. For the kleptocrats the common good and people’s needs are secondary and only looked at when they are at the service of their primary goal: to fatten their fortunes and make sure they stay in power.
The case of the inept in power is something different. Kakistocracies (literally, governments by the worst) proliferate in weak and disorganized political systems that repel the talented and attract the inept and most debased. Obviously, sometimes they they come together producing a government that is both criminal and incompetent. When the two coincide, the kleptocracy and the kakistocracy feed back on each other.
. If this committee focuses solely – or even mostly – on malfeasance that negatively affects Republicans and conservatives, the rest of the country will not view the probes as credible. Most people are aware of the reality that the FBI and intelligence agencies have long had a problem with corruption. Throughout history, their misconduct has harmed Americans on both sides of the political divide – and is likely doing so even today.
The issues surrounding the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago and the way it has approached the abortion issue certainly indicate that the Bureau is biased in favor of the left. This is likely the case with intelligence agencies as well. But the investigations must be geared toward rooting out all corruption regardless of political affiliation.
Additionally, it is also worth noting that even if these investigations reveal smoking guns, it won’t matter if there is no accountability. Indeed, if heads don’t roll, what exactly is the purpose of bothering to investigate in the first place? This is the concern I – and several others – have expressed. It’s not enough to simply expose wrongdoing; the people engaging in these actions must be punished. Unfortunately, we know this is not going to happen. //
Quizzical
2 minutes ago
There are two major reasons why the January 6 committee lacked any credibility. That Democrats wanted the committee to exit and Republicans didn't is not one of them. //
If the price of a serious investigation into FBI abuses is that the committee must also look at some government agencies abusing power in ways that offends the left, that's fine. The important thing is to uncover the abuses that have happened and figure out how to prevent it from happening again. If Democrats want to argue that it's okay for the FBI to tell social media companies which Americans to ban for saying things that the FBI disapproves of, then make them put that on the record.
We reported last week how the Attorney General of the Virgin Islands Denise George filed a massive lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase in New York accusing the bank of ‘knowingly providing and pulling the levers through which [Epstein’s] recruiters and victims were paid.’ “Epstein Island,” more formally known as Little St. James Island is part of the U.S.V.I.
The lawsuit maintained that “human trafficking was the principal business of the accounts that Epstein maintained at JPMorgan.” //
But then came stunning news on Monday that the Attorney General had been fired by the Governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Albert Bryan, Jr. The governor’s spokesperson is refusing to say why she was fired, ‘I am not at liberty to discuss details on personnel matters.’ //
Coincidentally, on the same day that George filed the lawsuit, Joe Biden flew down to the Virgin Islands, to St. Croix, for vacation. He didn’t leave until Monday, the same day that it was announced the AG had been fired.
People couldn’t help but think of that instance where Joe Biden got the Ukrainian prosecutor fired who had raided the home of a Burisma official, given the coincidence.
Republicans must be wary of Democratic efforts to fortify elections in 2023 and beyond. While some congressional Republicans might think the post-2020 election integrity fight is over, that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Democrats have a massive ground game advantage over Republicans already, and if they pass these policy proposals — under the insufferable label of “voting rights” — in key swing states, that advantage will only grow to an insurmountable one. Republicans must realize election integrity is not a seasonal push nor a battle isolated to 2020. Rather, they must be on offense for years to come.
SNCF, the French national railroad, was among bullet train operators from Europe and Japan that came to California in the early 2000s with hopes of getting a contract to help develop the system.
But SNCF backed out in 2011. Executives saw cronyism and political potholes everywhere. Instead, SNCF went to Morocco. Within six years it had completed Morocco’s bullet train line. They didn’t return to California, nor would it ever. There is too much waste and indecision in California. //
SNCF recommended a direct line from LA to San Francisco. That made sense and it is clear that is what the bond issuance was for. The politicians said no.
An LA County Supervisor wanted the train to run through his district which included the upper Mojave desert, and the city of Palmdale. For those unfamiliar with Southern California that change required a northern jag of an added 41 miles of extra line. //
Imagine my excitement when Newsom announced that California will mandate electric cars. Somehow the state will completely rebuild its electric grid in twelve years. It took the state twenty years(!) to rebuild the Bay Bridge after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson has said his city will use a private grant to conduct door-to-door canvassing by the city’s election officials to urge people to vote.
To many people, it would seem that nothing could be as innocuous as a simple “nonpartisan” get-out-the-vote (GOTV) effort, even if it is financed by private grants to election officials. It might sound fair enough, if the mayor’s election staff takes no partisan position, and advocates for no particular candidates in their efforts, and given that election officials are required by law to operate in a nonpartisan fashion.
But as The Federalist’s Mollie Hemingway tweeted at the time, “Zuckerberg-style targeted private financing — and collusion with supposedly non-partisan election administration — of GOTV operations in Democrat regions is a horrific attack on election integrity.”
Even if we could take Milwaukee Mayor Johnson at his word when he says, “I’m not asking anybody to cast their ballots for 1 party or another or 1 candidate or another. What I’m asking is for people to participate in our process,” what he is suggesting is inherently partisan, at least in Milwaukee, and in most other U.S. urban areas.
Content neutrality of GOTV efforts ultimately has little to do with their partisan effects. The partisan advantage depends far more on the political characteristics of the targeted area.
In a city like Milwaukee, which Joe Biden won in 2020 with 80 percent of the vote to Donald Trump’s 20 percent, a randomly targeted GOTV effort can be expected to increase the Democratic candidate’s vote total by an extra 600 votes for every 1,000 additional voters mobilized. This is because the Democratic candidate would be expected to get an additional 800 votes, while the Republican candidate would be expected to get an additional 200 votes, resulting in a net gain for the Democrat of 600 votes.
If a successful effort in Milwaukee — such as Johnson has in mind this year — results in the mobilization of 40,000 additional voters in Milwaukee, we would expect the result to be an additional 24,000 votes for the Democratic candidate, far in excess of the 20,682 votes by which Biden defeated Trump in Wisconsin in 2020.
You can calculate the “get-out-the-vote multiplier” (GOTV multiplier) for any city or county yourself. All you have to know is the margin by which the Democratic candidate beat the Republican candidate in the previous election, assuming that the political characteristics of the demographic in question haven’t significantly changed.
For example, if an area is 80 percent Democrat and 20 percent Republican like Milwaukee, the GOTV multiplier will be the difference between the Democrat vote share and the Republican vote share, which in this case is 60 percent or 0.60. An additional 1,000 votes will yield an extra 600 votes for the Democrat.
Of course, if the Republican candidate beats the Democrat candidate, the GOTV multiplier will be negative. This is why one never sees leftist nonprofits targeting GOTV efforts in exurban and rural areas, even though many Democratic voters live in those areas.
Techno Fog @Techno_Fog
The FBI caught Steele primary subsource Igor Danchenko in a number of lies.
What did the FBI do in response?
It signed Danchenko up as a paid FBI confidential human source.
Durham's latest:
technofog.substack.com
Durham shocker: Danchenko was a paid FBI informant
3:20 PM · Sep 13, 2022
Durham dropped a pretty stunning revelation regarding Igor Danchenko, who is currently being prosecuted for lying to the FBI. Danchenko was the primary sub-source for the discredited Steele Dossier and was caught in several falsehoods regarding the document.
Now, we are learning that after those lies were known, the FBI didn’t stop using him as a source. On the contrary, they made him a paid confidential informant until the month before the 2020 presidential election. //
Techno Fog @Techno_Fog
·
The FBI caught Steele primary subsource Igor Danchenko in a number of lies.
What did the FBI do in response?
It signed Danchenko up as a paid FBI confidential human source.
Durham's latest
technofog.substack.com
Durham shocker: Danchenko was a paid FBI informant
Techno Fog @Techno_Fog
The purpose should be quite clear -
The FBI buries Danchenko from inquiry by making him a CHS.
In doing so, the FBI prevents discovery of its own misconduct.
Utterly corrupt and self-serving.
3:47 PM · Sep 13, 2022
NARA told Trump it would proceed with “providing the FBI access to the records in question, as requested by the incumbent President, beginning as early as May 12, 2022,” according to the order.
Contrary to Biden’s claims, per the order, it was Biden who requested that the documents that had been turned over to NARA be provided to the FBI.
While Biden might not have known of the moment of the raid, he knew of the involvement of the FBI because he had requested the documents be turned over to them. He was directly involved in the FBI action. //
Robert A Hahn
3 hours ago
I wish someone could explain to me why every judge involved in this case prefers to ignore the existence of the Presidential Records Act, which would appear to render moot the issue of whether any of these documents were classified. That law, on its face, anticipates that some of the records taken by an outgoing president will be classified. Yet the law contains no penalties or even restrictions on taking them. This would appear to make it impossible to charge a former president -- as the Democrats and their blue media insist must happen -- with "possession of classified documents." Given that, what possible legal reason could there be for even asking for a search warrant, let alone conducting a raid on someone's home? And now here we are again with the "review which ones were classified" nonsense, when the law draws no distinction in that area?
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that Facebook algorithmically suppressed stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop during the 2020 election at the request of the FBI weeks before the November contest.
Speaking on Joe Rogan’s podcast on Thursday, Zuckerberg said the FBI approached employees at the tech giant to warn that the laptop was a vehicle of Russian interference.
Citizens United filed two lawsuits this week against the Department of Interior and Department of State for failing to comply with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) records requests regarding the White House’s attempt to federalize elections.
The nonprofit submitted FOIA requests in June, but both agencies failed to respond (federal law requires FOIA requests to be responded to within 20 working days). The requests sought email and text messages from both agencies that mentioned President Biden’s Promoting Access to Voting executive order and the Hatch Act, a law that prohibits executive branch employees from engaging in election activities. //
As previously reported by The Federalist, Biden’s executive order directs all 600 federal agencies to become voter registration agencies and organize voter outreach efforts. It allows such agencies — including ones that dole out federal benefits —to work with leftwing get-out-the-vote groups.
Despite insisting that national elections include mail-in voting, Starbucks is cracking down on its employees’ mail-in unionization efforts. //
The company’s latest hypocrisy is its request to the National Labor Relations Board for suspension of mail-in ballots for union votes. The coffee giant is concerned about the mishandling of ballots and potential collusion between NLRB and union organizers. In addition, it wants all elections to be held in person, with representatives from both the union and Starbucks corporate present, to ensure fairness in how votes are validated and tabulated.
These are all very reasonable expectations, and they’re very similar to positions conservative lawmakers hold on voter integrity in our political election process. They are also very similar to positions Starbucks publicly characterized as being an affront to the democratic process in an open letter last year, disparaging laws to protect voter integrity. //
The company’s concerns are, however, correct regarding union votes being corrupted. The accusations regarding collusion between the NLRB and the Starbucks Union are serious, and if the federally funded labor watchdog illegally provided union activists with vote tallies as the ballots came in, allowing union reps to target non-voting employees, it could cast doubt on the validity of many previously decided elections.
The accusations are based on the reports from a whistleblower within the NLRB itself, lending credence to the charges. In-person voting will cut down on the potential for fraud and this type of voter intimidation.
A look at the FBI’s last six years shows a pattern of irredeemable corruption.
The more our elections rely on the Postal Service, the more interference we can expect. //
Starbucks recently asked the National Labor Relations Board to suspend all pending and ongoing votes to unionize at its U.S. stores due to concerns stemming from mail-in ballots. The franchise’s objections once again raise questions about the credibility of election systems that rely on mail-in ballots.
As with coffee companies, how much more with the American electoral process? With hundreds of millions of dollars of campaign material and increasing numbers of ballots in the mail, postal efficiency and honesty are becoming increasingly vital to free and fair elections. //
Two years ago, the USPS conducted an audit of election mail and found that some 68,000 pieces of election materials for the Baltimore mayor primary sat undelivered for five days before the June 2 election. This resulted in much of the campaign mail not being delivered until after most Marylanders had already cast their ballots by mail.
Incumbent Democratic Baltimore Mayor Bernard C. “Jack” Young placed fifth in the primary. Young was seen as moderate and pro-business. Young raised the most money, but he was beaten by a progressive candidate who enjoyed substantial union support, Brandon Scott. Of the late mail, Young speculated, “That might the reason why I didn’t get a lot of votes.” //
In May 2022, there was abundant evidence suggesting there was a concerted effort by postal workers to swing runoff elections in Texas. The Texas State House of Representatives District 73 is the 32nd most Republican district of the state’s 150. According to an analysis by “The Texan,” the district has a 71 percent Republican partisan lean — meaning that the real contest is in the Republican primary, as there is little chance of a competitive general election.
After a three-way primary, the runoff came down to Barron Casteel and Carrie Isaac. The Casteel campaign received financial support from the largest government workers union in the nation, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), fire and police unions, and the Association of Texas Professional Educators. Given the hard Republican tilt in this district, Casteel would be the best Republican the unions could hope for.
And, as happened in Baltimore in the 2020 primary, delayed campaign mail played a role in this election — though Isaac ended up prevailing by 271 votes out of the 22,207 cast and won by a margin of 1.2 percent.
Interestingly, Republican voters in Hays County reported late mail from the Isaac campaign. In Comal County, Casteel’s home turf, the mail arrived on time. Hays County is served by a sorting center in northeast Austin. Comal County is served out of San Antonio.
Isaac’s late pieces featured clear conservative messaging — an endorsement by Sen. Ted Cruz and calls to finish the border wall and to cut property taxes.
Campaign mail today is scanned and tracked. This allowed Isaac’s campaign consultant, Jordan Berry, to know with certainty that six mailers totaling 11,426 pieces targeted at high-propensity Republican households in Hays County were delivered after the election. The six mailers were each dropped on separate days and cost the campaign around $10,000.
As might be expected, the late mail had an effect on the election. Isaac, whose husband Jason represented Hays County for eight years, from 2011 to 2019, was expected to win Hays County as it was her home turf. Instead, she narrowly lost to Casteel by 308 votes. In Comal County, where Casteel served as mayor of New Braunfels, Isaac won by 579 votes.
Following the contentious 2000 election of President George W. Bush, former President Jimmy Carter and Republican James Baker co-chaired the bipartisan Commission on Election Reform. It issued a 100-plus-page document called “Building Confidence in U.S. Elections,” which treated election integrity, public accountability, and transparency seriously, and as vitally important to that goal.
Following the much more contentious 2020 election, we have instead been treated to an endless stream of official apologetics which seeks to convince the general public that this election “was one of the most secure in our history,” and that anybody who questions the results is acting in bad faith.
Now we have a recently released “bombshell” report by prominent Never Trump attorneys and politicians claiming to make “The Conservative Case that Trump Lost and Biden Won the 2020 Presidential Election” (the Ginsberg Report), which seeks to assure us that even conservatives should believe that the 2020 election was beyond reproach and that there really is no useful point in continuing to discuss or debate it anymore
Rather than attempting an objective analysis of the 2020 election, the Ginsberg Report seems to have a different purpose. It appears to be intended to shut down reasonable debate about election integrity by linking all such claims with the most extravagant and unprovable theories of election fraud that were circulated by some Trump supporters in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election.
The objective is not to debunk the wild, baseless theories, but rather to dismiss valid election objections by tarring them with the same brush as the wildest conspiracy theories under the general rubric of “baseless claims of widespread election fraud,” and then dismiss the entire package out of hand.
Concerns about election cheating remain high, and a majority of voters favor the procedure by which Arizona “audited” disputed 2020 presidential election results in Maricopa County.
A new national telephone and online survey by Rasmussen Reports and The National Pulse finds that 56% of Likely U.S. voters believe every state should require that ballots be available immediately after elections for bipartisan voter reviews to enhance election confidence and transparency. Only 23% are against ballot reviews, while another 21% are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
The Arizona Democratic Party filed a lawsuit in a failed effort to prevent the audit of 2020 ballots in Maricopa County. Auditors found nearly 50,000 ballots deemed “questionable.” although the recount did not overturn President Joe Biden’s narrow victory in Arizona over former President Donald Trump. //
President Biden’s strongest supporters are least supportive of bipartisan voter reviews to enhance election confidence and transparency. Among voters who Strongly Approve of Biden’s job performance as president, just 33% favor every state requiring that ballots be available for review immediately after elections, while 46% are opposed to such ballot reviews. By contrast, among voters who Strongly Disapprove of Biden’s performance, 79% favor bipartisan voter reviews and just six percent (6%) are opposed.
As Mike Anton presciently wrote two weeks ago, the political persecution of Donald Trump is not about him at all, but about his representation of what a large block of voters want that the national security state refuses to allow.
The regime can’t allow Trump to be president not because of who he is (although that grates), but because of who his followers are. That class—Angelo Codevilla’s “country class”—must not be allowed representation by candidates who might implement their preferences, which also, and above all, must not be allowed. The rubes have no legitimate standing to affect the outcome of any political process, because of who they are, but mostly because of what they want.
Complaints about the nature of Trump are just proxies for objections to the nature of his base.
No wonder Democrats keep bleating loudly about “our democracy” — they know we don’t live in one presently. And this FBI raid is going to make a lot more people aware of it.
If Republicans continue to submit to this farcical arrangement, it will be more confirmation that America’s two-party system is also a pretense, and Republicans are merely a fake opposition party kept on life support to help some people believe our elections are legitimate.
Republicans’ promised hearings aren’t enough. Republicans also held hearing after hearing on Spygate, and nobody was brought to justice. They should be using every peaceful tool of dissent, protest, and refusing to cooperate, as well as preparing to replace the entire FBI and DOJ with completely apolitical staff. Anything Democrats want or need from Republicans from now on, including providing the appearance of a consenting two-party system, should be completely off limits until this banana republic governance ends.
Fani Willis’s own court filings against President Trump, Sen. Lindsey Graham, and other Republicans reveal her investigation is a sham because its ‘central focus’ rests on a lie.
Carter was later arrested at his parents’ home in Georgia. His employer, Rep Schneider, was informed of Carter’s crimes and arrest. The Congressman’s office didn’t fire him on the spot. Instead, Carter was given the option to resign. Carter resigned. Only after his arrest was Carter’s payroll theft discovered and incredibly that is the only crime Carter will spend time behind bars for. His initial arrest was for impersonating a federal agent and illegal possession of a handgun, but it was his theft of $80,000 (theft of public funds) that got him prison time. The other charges were dropped.
Carter was sentenced to nine months in federal prison. He’ll begin serving his time shortly.