November 6, 2020

I think it's valuable to read the transcript and judge Trump's words on their merit, not just to remember how you felt as you heard this...


... (if you listened to the whole thing live) and what it seemed as though he was saying. This speech was, I presume, intended to cause intense emotion, and I think it did. I got the feeling he was making wild accusations and that he ought instead to stay very closely connected to the evidence. 

From the transcript of Donald Trump's press conference yesterday:
The officials overseeing the counting in Pennsylvania and other key states are all part of a corrupt Democrat machine that you’ve written about. And for a long time, you’ve been writing about the corrupt Democrat machine. I went to school there and I know a lot about it. It hasn’t changed since a long time ago and hasn’t changed. It has gotten worse. 
In Pennsylvania, partisan Democrats have allowed ballots in the state to be received three days after the election, and we think much more than that, and they’re counting those without even postmarks or any identification whatsoever. So you don’t have postmarks, you don’t have identification. 
There have been a number of disturbing irregularities across the nation. 
Our campaign has been denied access to observe any counting in Detroit. Detroit is another place, and I wouldn’t say has the best reputation for election integrity. Poll workers in Michigan were duplicating ballots. But when our observers attempted to challenge the activity, those poll workers jumped in front of the volunteers to block their views so that they couldn’t see what they were doing and it became a little bit dangerous. 
One major hub for counting ballots in Detroit covered up the windows again with large pieces of cardboard, and so they wanted to protect and block the counting area. They didn’t want anybody seeing the counting, even though these were observers who were legal observers that were supposed to be there. In Detroit, there were hours of unexplained delay in delivering many of the votes for counting. The final batch did not arrive until 4:00 in the morning. And even though the polls closed at 8:00 o’clock, so they brought it in and the batches came in and nobody knew where they came from. 
We’ve also been denied access to observe in critical places in Georgia. In multiple swing states, counting was halted for hours and hours on Election Night. With results withheld from major Democrat run locations only to appear later, and they certainly appeared and they all had the name Biden on them, or just about all. I think almost all. They all had the name Biden on them, which is a little strange. 
I challenge Joe and every Democrat to clarify that they only want legal votes because they talk about votes and I think they should use the word legal, legal votes. We want every legal vote counted, and I want every legal vote counted. We want openness and transparency, no secret count rooms, no mystery ballots, no illegal votes being cast after Election Day... We’re hearing stories that are horror stories, absolute horror stories, and we can’t let that happen to the United States of America.... There’s been a lot of shenanigans and we can’t stand for that in our country.

ADDED at 7:16: I've reformatted the material above to make it easier to see and read and to forefront what I had to say about it. I put this post up hastily before going out for my sunrise run, which partly explains the previous formatting. 

But I want to be clear about what I felt, listening to Trump in real time yesterday, compared to what I think reading the transcript this morning. As I say above, "I got the feeling he was making wild accusations and that he ought instead to stay very closely connected to the evidence." When I read the transcript, it seems much more disciplined and close to the evidence than it seemed to me after listening yesterday. 

After listening, I had thoughts like: The President is going crazy. He's putting his interest in winning above the our interest in peace and security, trying to make us think everything is going to hell when, really, it's a pretty normal election under the highly unusual COVID circumstance. He should make his argument, but he needs to ground it solidly on evidence and not just say anything and everything that comes into his head as he fights for his personal victory and plays on our unstable emotions.

But reading the text — and the part I excerpted is where I expected to see the craziness — I am amazed how much it sticks to specific assertions of fact, actual observations, and not vague, broad claims about corruption everywhere. 

274 comments:

1 – 200 of 274   Newer›   Newest»
Michael said...

If I want to vote a straight ticket can I mail in ballots now for 2022 and 2024? And round up neighbors to do the same?

Mark said...

It wasn't overstating his case, he lied.

As was said at the debate, he is acting like a drunk crazy uncle.

When Republicans in the future talk about the dignity of the Presidential office, we will all remember Trump making up lies at the podium.

I hope you are safe from the right wing violence to come, Althouse. Trump trains are planned to head to Madison this weekend, we are staying the hell away from downtown and campus.

Iman said...

I’d call them accusations... nothing wild about them.

Legal votes are the only votes that SHOULD be counted.

Rocketeer said...

What accusations, specifically, did you think were "wild"? That's not snark, I'm genuinely curious. I personally thought he was remarkably restrained given the literally unbelievable changes to the counts in the remaining contested states.

D.D. Driver said...

Well, I'm glad we won't have another four years of half the country refusing to accept the outcome of an election.

Great, Trump. If what you say is true, your lawyers will have no problem proving but in court. If they can't prove it in court then it didn't happen.

readering said...

Biden passes Trump in Georgia, run by Republicans.

Marcus Bressler said...

"wild". yeahrite

gilbar said...

I got the feeling ...
I got the feeling that any semblance of our living in a free country are LONG GONE

Was just reading about the Battle of Athens Tennessee

That sort of thing wouldn't ever happen now, that's for sure. Americans are Pussies

Mike Sylwester said...

The transcript is divided into paragraphs.

Lurker21 said...


Accusations, sure, but not so wild.

It's too late in the day to expect Trump to change his style.

He's not going to deliver a perfect legal brief.

He speaks off the cuff.

And doesn't get as tangled up in the words as Biden does.

mezzrow said...

Yet, what do the many millions who voted for him think?

Trump won't win over those who did not vote for him with this. He knows that. This is not addressed to them. This is addressed to his base. He's not going to make any piece of this easy for the people doing this.

This will be a war of attrition. That's his message.

Temujin said...

This is a cat and mouse game now. There are a number of very, very disturbing anomalies in only the key state votes. Although, let's face it, there may be many in states like Illinois, California, New York, Washington- but being such deeply blue states with deep blue machines running them, no one looks for their corruption any longer. It's just accepted.

But in PA, AZ, NV, MI, WI, GA- there are a lot of anomalies. Odd surges. Odd timing of surges Strange ratios down ticket. Scores of dead voters and voters from other states. And of course, when you throw in non-standardized codes for elections: mass ballot mailings in some states, moving ballot entry dates, + bags and suitcases full of ballots being brought into key city polling places in the dead of night, and the obvious obfuscation of poll watchers, actually going out of their way to block the view of poll watchers- there's enough to make even a dead voter question his own vote.

I suspect the Trump team is gathering specific evidence. But even if they do not- who can accept this? How will Biden even be received by this country? You think Trump was disparaged? That's a kids game compared to the resentment at an actual stolen election. Four years ago it was the Russia hoax. Putin put Trump in office. That turned out to be actual BS. THIS sure looks like an actual coup.

How do 70 million people swallow this? Answer: They don't. Good luck with the Biden administration. It will be hell.

Unknown said...

Yah he should lay back and enjoy it quietly

Renember similar reaction when he said Obama wiretaped him

stevew said...

Comparing Trump's remarks to the news and what is being reported on other sites I don't read what he says as wild accusations. Anecdotal, hyperbole, sure, but he's not arguing a court case, he's fighting back against the Democrats and their friends in the media who are spinning propaganda.

eightfold said...

Before we announce that the accusations are wild, we should determine if the accusations are true

Rumpletweezer said...

NPR reports all of Trump's claims of fraud as lies. I don't know what they think they're doing, but it's not journalism.

RBE said...

He is right to be enraged! There is every reason to believe the fix is in and little to be done about it. The Democrat machine has blocked any attempt to fix the election process to make fraud more difficult at every level for years. Unfortunately the Democratic voter does not see the problem now and never has. They have been programmed to think Republicans want to suppress the vote.

iowan2 said...

There is only one reason not to have a digital sortable data base available online for the entire world to access. Name, precinct, voter ID #. A number of total votes cast, by 8AM next day. With this information, the number of names and number of votes will match exactly.

mockturtle said...

I think you're right, Althouse. He needs to let his attorneys and political operatives do the dirty work of contesting the election, lest he come across as a sore loser.

mockturtle said...

BTW, there is plenty of evidence of wrongdoing in many states. Certainly here in AZ and also in NV.

rehajm said...

I got the feeling he was making wild accusations and that he ought instead to stay very closely connected to the evidence...

He's snapping the American people out of the voting phase of the election into the legal phase, where his team will provide the evidence.

..and there WILL be evidence.

rehajm said...

We've impeached Presidents on less evidence...

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

more:


Why is this allowed? It's fraud.

wendybar said...

How can he stay "closely connected to the evidence" when the Democrats are locking out the people being sent to oversee that they aren't cheating???

Tom said...

Making a rational case for a stolen election will not sway people into action. Rational arguments simply don’t motivate most people.

Emotional appeals motivate people. Trump has always been the master of the emotional appeal without an ounce of rational appeal.

For anyone trained to analyze rational arguments, he comes across as a moronic demagogue. But, for everyone else, he’s says exactly what they’re feeling and in a way they can absorb it.

If he has the facts to back up his emotional appeal, he’s perfectly legitimate in how he organizes the emotional appeal.

If he doesn’t have the facts to back up his emotional appeal, he’s very dangerous and needs to be stopped.

I, for one, see tremendous potential for cheating and the recent spat of medial censorship sees to indicate to me the fix is in.

NKP said...

No doubt election officials still counting votes in Pennsylvania and Georgia are the same people that ran the clock in basketball gold medal game at 1972 Olympics.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Those "wild accusations" have all been made by other individuals, prior to his speech.

wild chicken said...

I've worked election day at the polls, and after the poll closed and we were cleaning up, the poll book judges would sit around the table making sure the number of people signing in matched the number of ballots given out which should equal the number run through the scanners and voted.

If it was off then we all had to wait until they could figure it out. Not talking big discrepancies here. The numbers went into the precinct totals sent to the county.

All those numbers are reported to the state by precinct.

So I don't see how these late night ballot dumps can work can reconcile. Seems like a decent audit would ferret them out.

Mrs. X said...

Wild? Maybe. True, almost certainly. I have often thought that Trump spoke inappropriately and that this inappropriateness would prevent him first from becoming president and then from governing effectively. I was wrong. He’s managed to do many things right in spite of being scolded and scorned by his “betters.” He is fighting for his political survival but more importantly for the country’s, and I take it that he’s got a better idea of how to do this than you or I, Ann. Past performance s not a guarantee of future results, but have at them, Trump. Go wild.

Jaq said...

If the vote counters were so confident in the fairness of their process, they would have allowed observers so that we could all feel good about the process, even if we were disappointed in the result. Of course they didn’t do that, and they are counting on their allies in the media and big tech to suppress any and all questions about fairness. Like they disappeared that video of the observer in Philadelphia who had serious problems with what was going on, mostly that he wasn’t allowed within 130 feet of the actual counting.

I used to roll my eyes when people would say “It’s not the votes that count, but he who counts the vote."

Peglegged Picador said...

Can you please say this more clearly for the folks in the back? In case the Professor isn't being explicit enough for y'all here:Law and order = being a patriotic American,Wild and unsubstantiated allegations about pur elections = being self serving and unpatriotic at a level that undermines the very foundations of our country.

Temujin said...

If you're running a proper election, if you're a state or city official running a polling place, you should want to show the citizenry that everything is above board. You should want this to be open to view.

In the 2000 election, the hanging chad incident was on TV. All reporters were right there. That was one county in one state. That was the issue there.

In 2020 we're up to multiple states, working massive ballot influxes in the dead of night, and covering up their polling counting areas during the day, allowing no one to see what is going on. (they allow 1 or 2 watchers in some places, standing 10, 30, 100 feet away. No one can see anything.)

Fraud? It's not just fraud taking place. It's a coup. And it cannot end well for anyone.

john said...

He certainly plays the victim card well. That's so Republican.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Thread
See new Tweets
Conversation
David Shafer
@DavidShafer
·
Nov 4
At the @GaRepublicans
State Headquarters monitoring reports from county tabulation centers. Problems with Republican and other public observers being allowed to view tabulation and canvass.
David Shafer
@DavidShafer
Replying to
@DavidShafer
Fulton County told our observers last night to go home because they were closing up and then continued to count ballots in secret.

This.
and boarding up windows in Detroit.
This should all be illegal.

boatbuilder said...

What are the “wild accusations?”

You, and the media and the Dems are insisting on “proof” of fraud while the crime is in process.

Seems to me Trump is stating probable cause. If the crime succeeds, where is the recourse for Trump and those who voted for him?

Darrell said...

Trump is right. Every American should be outraged about vote fraud, no matter the side. If this stands, and hundreds don't go to jail, democracy is dead. Remember the "found" votes that defeated Walker when Walker was comfortably in the lead? Remember the found votes in that Wisc. Supreme Court vote where the Dems pulled manufactured votes out of the asses and then the Republicans trumped them will real votes that weren't turned over to the media during the night. If the Republican hadn't done that Democrats would have stolen another election. And why weren't the fraudsters hunted down, fired from public jobs, and imprisoned? Do citizens have to take the law into their own hands?

boatbuilder said...

Or are you saying that you “felt” that he was making wild accusations, but upon reading the transcript you no longer “feel” that way?

Jaq said...

"I got the feeling he was making wild accusations and that he ought instead to stay very closely connected to the evidence. “

When Trump expresses an outré opinion, it’s a lie, and when Biden lies about facts, like during the debate when he said he had the endorsement of the boilermakers union, to pick one out of many many lies he has told, it’s never even examined.

“Judgement” really boils down to looking at whether stuff fits into well known and long understood patterns and shared beliefs, and so when people say things that appear to fall outside of those patterns and shared believes, they seem “wild” to us. Except what if we have been lied to for decades? I think Mark Twain might have said, and he wrote a lot about lying in Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, that it’s easier to convince somebody of a lie than to convince them they have been lied to.

But good on you for putting the transcript up and showing that what he was saying was reasonable. It’s going to go to the courts, and if maybe we can get some court orders to improve ballot security and fraud prevention measures out of this, even if Trump loses, it might be his greatest achievement.

Jaq said...

That transcript should have been broken into paragraphs, but better not to to make it appear disordered. One more Dutch angle type framing of Trump.

MayBee said...

This is no way to run elections. It’s a clown show.

rehajm said...

Mainstream media has played a huge role in eroding American confidence in our elections. They spent four years saying Trump’s 2016 win was just a gift from Putin. Now the media is incredulous that so many Americans don’t trust the electoral system they succeeded in discrediting.

Sally327 said...

I don't think Presidents necessarily stick to the evidence as if acting as an attorney in a courtroom subject to the rules of evidence and judicial oversight. A President seeks to create a certain perspective so that by shaping the narrative they can push for a particular result. Sometimes that involves assuming facts not in evidence or trying to keep certain evidence excluded to avoid the admission of inconvenient facts.

Bill Clinton wasn't sticking to the evidence when he blamed right wing talk radio for the Oklahoma City bombing (to deflect attention away from the role his administration's siege at Waco and Ruby Ridge played in McVeigh's motivations) and George W Bush wasn't sticking to the evidence when he told us that Iraq had WMD (to justify going to war in Iraq) and Barack Obama wasn't sticking to the evidence when he told us that the NSA surveillance program was transparent and lacked the means to monitor telephone calls and emails (to hide the illegal and massive violation of civil liberties perpetrated by his administration).




Rory said...

Four years ago, the Democrats were running a false dossier that they created through elected officials and the State Department with the intention of getting it in front of the Electors and convincing them to overturn the result of the election. So, there are no "wild accusations" anymore.

chuck said...

Didn't sound wild to me, but we will see.

Howard said...

Sore Loser. His big mistake was telegraphing the voter suppression. If he had kept it more on the down low he might have won.

Jaq said...

1361 fraudulent ballots identified by simply entering dead people’s names into voter databases in Michigan, this is not a comprehensive search.

https://twitter.com/ClimateAudit/status/1324586090897018880

I don’t know how you can call this a “wild accusation”

I once sat next to an archeologist on a flight from NYC to London and we talked all night, he was very chatty and it was the middle of June and he wanted to see the sun never go down as we flew near Greenland, anyway, he said that he worked for the highway department in big southern state and that the main thing he did was investigate when artifacts were found in the path of planned highways. He said that a lot of the time they were “salted” by activists trying to prevent the highway from being built, but that it was impossible to fake an archeological site because of all of the factors involved. This same principle applies to elections, if you commit fraud, you are going to leave statistical anomalies that defy the laws of probability, which is exactly what people have been finding. This is scientific evidence of fraud and you would think that the “party of science” would be all over it.

Laurel said...

ANOTHER blog post and no comments up an hour later.

Sheesh. Spontaneity, gone. Conversation, stilted. Continuity? Disjointed.

I remember when you’d have posts getting several hundred comments. It’s dying. Even election threads don’t pull the interest.

Birches said...

I still don't understand why anyone stopped counting ballots Tuesday night, let alone multiple states. It is highly suspicious.

A republican official in Fulton County Georgia confirms that his people were told to go home because they were waiting until morning, only to have the count continue. That's bizarre, right?

Back in 2000 everyone could watch Florida election workers. And the media wasn't all pravda.

And the idea that there's no modern equivalent of fraud is laughable. Al Franken is not that long ago.

Clayton Hennesey said...

It's reasonable to conclude that Trump's remarks were not meant for Ann Althouse.

Instead, they were directed as a call to action to his supporters to report every credible instance of voting irregularity and voter fraud across all 50 states.

Pam Bondi announced a Web site to collect such instances on Fox yesterday, but good luck finding it on any of our converged search engines. Perhaps one of the other commenters here caught the address.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Again- the collective left spend the last 4 years lying to everyone. You expect them to be honest at election time?

I'm Full of Soup said...

I live in PA.

The system was unilaterally and unconstitutionally revised by the state supreme court to accept ballots by the end of today even if there was no postmark or the postmark was illegible. The law as written said the deadline was 8PM on election day.

Then they decreed the signature did not need to even "resemble" the signature on the voter registration card.

These steps were added to beef up Dem votes and add an elecmnt of chaos to the election which the Dems could leverage as needed.

Please don't these ignore facts Althouse.

Jersey Fled said...

The Clinton defense: Where is the evidence.

chuck said...

A longer list of red flags.

Kay said...

He is doing what he has tried to do all along-shine a light into the swamp of attempted coups, Hunter’s selling out of the US, election fraud, media bias to name a few examples. He doesn’t care if he angers the perpetrators. I believe he truly cares about the US, not just himself. He will go out with a bang to get this voting situation noticed- the dead folks voting, the possible ballot/registered voter disparities, the whole mess that is causing such problems right now.

He won’t go quietly like Scott Walker. I wish WI had done more to safeguard the vote. Something like 230,000 didn’t have to show ID. That’s just one example.

wildswan said...

In re: Wild Accucations

I don't feel that Trump was making wild accusations; it's the truth that's wild. All the same we do need to be able to show how different kinds of cheating occurred in different parts of the country. We should be systematic about it. For example, here in our own beloved Milwaukee, we have two voting precincts in which 202% of registered voters voted. In each place about 600 voted for Biden, 600 for Trump. Now Milwaukee does have same day registration so having more voters than registered voters can happen if we assume 600 people signed up to vote on Election Day. These precincts - 273, 274 - are over in the Hispanic district of Morgan Hill. It's not likely that 600 Hispanics showed up on Election day carrying with them all the needed papers and were registered without creating long lines and a story which somebody has on video. But what did happen? Did the Trump ground game register 600 Hispanics for Trump which was countered that night by 600 Ballots for Biden? That would be a wild accusation. But it would be possible to go over and find out the process that occurred. And then go to the seven precincts where 100% of the registered voters voted. And find out what process occurred. Then once we understand the Ballots for Biden process in Milwaukee Wisconsin, we will be able to discuss the Milwaukee precincts in which 80 or 90% of all registered voters voted and nullified the votes in the rest of Wisconsin. And this process will not be the same as other states because there are specific laws about absentee ballots in Wisconsin. For one, they must have reached the polling site before the polls closed. That's the law here which is different from Pennsylvania. But did it happen as it should have? I think you'd only have to check the nine sites with 200 or 100 percent of registered voters voting to find the process. Come on, Republican party.

PS Nobody is saying the Hispanic community did this. It could be some way Dem party ops are manipulating some situation, such as renters constantly moving so their names are one several unpurged voting lists.

Lucien said...

When the misconduct is so brazen as to seem unbelievable, then calling the bad guys on it seems outrageous. But if you start with factual claims: were windows covered up or weren’t they, were observers illegally denied access or weren’t they — then you start to ask whether there is any explanation for the conduct other than cheating. If things really are on the up and up in Detroit, then are the election officials just making it look dirty for fun?

tim maguire said...

I didn't listen, but in reviewing people's reactions after, I think you're right. Good that he hit hard on "every legal vote" but he needs to avoid any accusation he can't prove and he should avoid sweeping generalisations--even if true, it's going to turn people off.

Trump's genius is identifying and tapping into what people already believe, but he is terrible at convincing people who disagree with him. To win right now, even if counting every legal ballot would put him in the lead, he needs to appeal to people who did not vote for him.

Oso Negro said...

And it's an ugly fucking set of facts. I for one, will be interested to see names published of the people running the 200% precincts in Milwaukee. Names and addresses.

pacwest said...

But reading the text —

And if you can step outside your bias for a moment it sounds even better.

bagoh20 said...

It's good to be skeptical, but your problem was really the initial unfounded assumption that Trump is crazy. That threw you off track. It was a wild accusation by your mind.

bagoh20 said...

There is only one reasonable explanation for why anyone would want to hide the counting from observers. The same reason someone would be in the bank vault at midnight with the lights out. Why else would you do either thing?

Wince said...

When I read the transcript, it seems much more disciplined and close to the evidence than it seemed to me after listening yesterday.

Similarly, like I said, go back and watch the first debate. Trump was much more measured than recalled and reinforced by the media narrative.

rehajm said...

There should be paperwork for those same day registrations in Wisconsin. The legal process would let us discover if there is...

wendybar said...

All this is doing is making the American people not trust Government, Intelligence agencies, or anybody else that "RULES" over us. When the corrupt can do whatever they want to you and get away with it.....we aren't free anymore....

wild chicken said...

The Trump org, the RNC and the state and local GOPs need to lawyer up and investigate. It's the only way.

Though there's probably no viable party in Philly.

Sebastian said...

"But reading the text"

What a concept. But then, everyone already knows what he said, since they remember what they felt. Feelz rule.

"I am amazed how much it sticks to specific assertions of fact, actual observations, and not vague, broad claims about corruption everywhere."

I appreciate your amazement. But it is not the first time Trump was accused or or perceived as saying something outlandish that, on further examination, turned out to be more valid than what his enemies made of it.

chuck said...

A longer list of red flags.

rehajm said...

In 2000, Al Gore put the country through a 37-day recount process in which he urged the courts to permit recounts only in the places where he thought he find additional votes for him. If you doubt that, read the book his lawyer, David Boies, wrote about it.

cacimbo said...

"Wild and unsubstantiated allegations about pur elections = being self serving and unpatriotic at a level that undermines the very foundations of our country."

Are you speaking of "Russian collusion" lie we were subjected to for years.

Butkus51 said...

Just wow.

This is all news to people? that dems cheat?

Imagine if Daley didnt cheat for Kennedy.

This is new to you? Seriously?

He was talking crazy talk? He's the sanest in the room.

Birkel said...

Is it a wild accusation that Democratical one-party cities are committing massive voter fraud?

You believe Joe Biden is outperforming Obama - but only in Milwaukee, Detroit, Philly, and Atlanta?
I do not believe you think that.

So where are the wild accusations?

bagoh20 said...

I hope Trump continues to fight. It may be his greatest contribution yet, by exposing the most serious corruption so far, that apparently doesn't bother a huge number of Americans.

The people who are not bothered by this remind me of Roman citizens opening the gates and allowing the barbarians in to push their own soldiers out of town, because they didn't like their foul language.

Jaq said...

I actually never listen to Trump directly. I only read transcripts and tweets, and I usually only read transcripts when people quote him out of context or with some willful misinterpretation.

Anyway, this is all going to the courts. It looks like there is so much chain of custody destruction going on that they will probably just get away with it, and Democrats will see zero reason to make these processes more transparent.

Money Manger said...

Agree with him or not, he will fight this battle alone. The Mainstream Republican machine is content with a Biden win.
The decision tree:
Trump wins, Street riots, 4 more years of noise, GOP loses the Senate and House in 2022, any Dem with a pulse wins the White House in 2024. For 8 years.
Biden wins: buyers remorse. GOP picks up the House, adds to Senate in 2022. Many GOP candidates can lick Kamala in 2024. For 8 years.

Trump has no army to fight this fight.

bagoh20 said...

The wild accusation is that everything is normal and legal. Everybody can see the fraud happening with their own eyes. You don't need to take anybody's word for it. Those denying it know they are lying, and they non longer have any credibility on anything. I'll never again accept their claim to patriotism if they even make one.

Howard said...

You people might have a case if the Dems made a clean sweep of the house and the Senate as well. Now that you have gone full QAnon, do you feel better?

Mid-Life Lawyer said...

"If they can't prove it in court then it didn't happen."

This is not even remotely true. You have to have clear evidence in court and the evidence can be concealed or destroyed. There are statistical anomalies that make it almost certain that fraud occured but without a thorough investigation and the FINDING of evidence, you cannot prove the fraud.

The reason nothing will come out of this is that we are very rich in this country. Although any reasonable person can see that there has been fraud, we won't go very far in doing anything about it. If many of us were standing in bread lines and had little to lose by more vigorously challenging the results, even violently reacting, then that would definitely be happening right now. Personally, I don't want to spend the rest of my life in prison but that's because I have it so good. I have a lot to lose. There are many men like me who aren't going to die or endanger themselves over principles when we can most likely live out our lives in virtual luxury regardless of our disappointment at watching our country go down the drain. It's going down slowly and we are fat and wealthy.

roesch/voltaire said...

If you vote for me it is legal, but if not it is illegal, makes sense to the tin man and his followers.

rehajm said...

Many GOP candidates can lick Kamala in 2024. For 8 years.

Ew!

jnseward said...

Of course there is voter fraud. Why wouldn't there be? We're talking about getting rid of Hitler! Any means are justified.

jim said...

So, he got the lawyers to write that speech and stuck with the script. His delivery made it all sound ludicrous and anti-American, but the lawyer's arguments are at least serious.

On the question of Pennsylvania: I live in rural Pennsylvania. My county went 75% for Trump. My neighbors who support Trump think the votes should be counted and the voters will should be done. Admittedly, these people are not insane, so not really a representative sample.

MadTownGuy said...

chuck said...
"A longer list of red flags."

From the link:
"I don’t know what the current numbers are now, but as of yesterday morning the Wisconsin Midnight Mystery Dump was something like 98.4% for Joe Biden. That’s better than the bluest of blue cities manage. That’s better than Biden did in DC. I saw one 28k dump yesterday (I want to say it was 538 talking about PA) that was listed as ALL for Biden. That’s basically statistically impossible."

This was my take on the magic votes that appeared for Evers and Kaul at the last minute in the 2018 WI general election. I figured it was a test run for 2020. I think I was correct.

mikee said...

Ballot harvesting works, as does "assisting" people to fill out their ballots. Universal mail in ballots are an open invitation to fraud. So now that we all know this, will the GOP use this knowledge in the next election, and try to win, or will it just revert to the submissive gimp it has been most of my life?

Rory said...

"Trump's genius is identifying and tapping into what people already believe, but he is terrible at convincing people who disagree with him."

The problem is that the other side is beyond convincing. They take their sense of well-being from disagreeing. If you agree, you're just at the same level as everyone else, and they can't have that.

Dixie_Sugarbaker said...

If this were Republican votes found in the dead of night after counting stopped everyone would be enraged and the issue would be swiftly addressed. The fact that is Dem votes should not change the outrage, but sadly for our nation, it does.

Howard said...

You people need to improve your ground game. Right now you just sound like a petulant toddler denied Jello pudding.

I Callahan said...

You people might have a case if the Dems made a clean sweep of the house and the Senate as well. Now that you have gone full QAnon, do you feel better?

Has it ever occurred to you that the additional ballots we're all complaining about here only had votes for president? That it takes longer to doctor ballots by picking additional choices for other offices? In addition, the two senate races in Georgia will now most definitely go to runoff, thanks to these additional ballots.

There are two logical, well-reasoned answers to your question. That said, this proves that you are more stupid than your comment style says about you.

MountainMan said...

readering said... "Biden passes Trump in Georgia, run by Republicans."

The counties in question are entirely Democrat.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...


Vote counts after the vote count is over always swing for democratics.

J. Farmer said...

I haven't followed any of the voting news beyond periodically checking results on election night, so I have no opinion on the fraud claims. However, it's pretty clear to me that whatever the outcome, there is going to be a sizable group of resentful Americans who question or outright deny the legitimacy of the election. Not unlike what we've had for the previous four years.

This is a repeat of a dynamic we have seen with every president since Clinton. While Clinton was undoubtedly a corrupt figure, the criticism from the "Clinton crazies" was so unhinged and over-the-top it actually helped Clinton by making it seem as if even serious allegations were just a witch hunt. We all remember "Bush Derangement Syndrome" and how Bush was going to establish a fascist theocracy. And then there was the birther movement and the hysterics about Obama being a Marxist/Islamist/Kenyan anti-Colonialist homo Manchurian Candidate. We managed to avoid those coups only to elect a president in 2016 who was simultaneously Putin's puppet and "literally Hitler." As with Clinton, this strategy has invariably helped the president being targeted.

Michael K said...

Blogger Howard said...
You people might have a case if the Dems made a clean sweep of the house and the Senate as well. Now that you have gone full QAnon, do you feel better?


Howard, why did all those GOP Congressional wins take place as Trump was losing the state ? They were riding his coat tails but the coat tails were hidden by fraud. You people have it all backwards. And you know it.

Michael said...

When did it become accepted wisdom that Democrats favored mail in votes? Who decided that, the pollsters? How can they have been so right about that and about nothing else.

Howard said...

You made my point for me, Callahan. Math is hard.

Sebastian said...

"Blogger Mid-Life Lawyer said...
"If they can't prove it in court then it didn't happen."

Although any reasonable person can see that there has been fraud, we won't go very far in doing anything about it"

Correct. Trump is right to fight briefly, but not much will come of it. "We won't go far"--and people will want to get on with it.

@Roy: "The problem is that the other side is beyond convincing."

Correct. And they have the power where it matters. So they can exploit small differences. But their actual advantage among the public at large is still small, so for the time being they have to be a bit cautious.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

The difference this time is that we have all this after the fact vote counting - and it's done in secret - boarded up windows in some cases, pole watchers told to go home, while democrats find more ballots.

Francisco D said...

Howard said...You people need to improve your ground game. Right now you just sound like a petulant toddler denied Jello pudding.

The Chicago Democrat ground game was paying bums for votes and bringing buses to take seniors to the polls. That is not really illegal. The illegal part was when precinct workers (all with city jobs) showed up before the polls open and put the machine on straight Democrat. They then pulled the lever until their arms got tired.

That ground game has changed and is a bit more sophisticated today. It is what keeps Democrats in power in urban areas.

mezzrow said...

The reason nothing will come out of this is that we are very rich in this country. Although any reasonable person can see that there has been fraud, we won't go very far in doing anything about it. If many of us were standing in bread lines and had little to lose by more vigorously challenging the results, even violently reacting, then that would definitely be happening right now. Personally, I don't want to spend the rest of my life in prison but that's because I have it so good. I have a lot to lose. There are many men like me who aren't going to die or endanger themselves over principles when we can most likely live out our lives in virtual luxury regardless of our disappointment at watching our country go down the drain. It's going down slowly and we are fat and wealthy.

Reposting this just so we can read it again. Core truth. Thanks for this.

Birkel said...

Destruction of evidence leads to an adverse inference against the destroyer.
Here, Democraticals attempting to cover up the fraud should create such an inference.

The ballots that cannot be proven must be disregarded for vote totals.
Or completely new votes with federal marshals as election observers.
Ordered by a federal judge, or panel of judges/Justices.

MountainMan said...

Good article from 2008 about the vote fraud in Chicago in the 1982 IL governor's election.. 63 people went to prison for this fraudulent creation of 100,000 votes.

I listened to Trump's news conference carefully and I pretty much came to the same conclusion as Prof. Althouse. John Hinderaker at PowerLine had the same conclusion.

In the IL case above the Chicago Tribune played a significant role in reporting on the fraud, I recall. The MSM is not playing such a role today as they have been all-in for Biden for the whole campaign.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Left are OK with stuffing the ballot box after the election is over.

Meade said...

"I think it's valuable to read the transcript and judge Trump's words on their merit, not just to remember how you felt as you heard this... (if you listened to the whole thing live) and what it seemed as though he was saying."

My feelings don't care about your "facts."

jim said...

Pat Toomey agrees: “The president’s speech last night was very disturbing to me because he made very, very serious allegations without any evidence to support it”

jim said...

The bottom line is any republican who wants to come out of this with their dignity is not going to go along with Trump tearing down the country as he is booted out.

Crazy World said...

Nothing to see here, just move along and get Joe anointed.
I weep for my country.

hombre said...

readering said...
“Biden passes Trump in Georgia, run by Republicans.” Correction: Biden passes Trump in Atlanta, run by Democrats.

Boarded up windows, defying court orders, 100,000 for Biden, 0 for Trump, unofficial wheeled suitcases entering counting areas, ballot w/o postmarks, etc. It’s the Al Franken scam on steroids.

We’re talking evidence, not necessarily proof. One has to be an extreme partisan or a imbecile not to notice. But then ....

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

On the ground reporting being suppressed by the media.

if Biden were facing this level of vote fraud - The media would be very interested.

Meade said...

"I suspect the Trump team is gathering specific evidence. But even if they do not- who can accept this? How will Biden even be received by this country? You think Trump was disparaged? That's a kids game compared to the resentment at an actual stolen election."

"President" Biden will be literally Marshal Pétain.

hombre said...

DD. Driver: “Great, Trump. If what you say is true, your lawyers will have no problem proving but in court. If they can't prove it in court then it didn't happen.”

Get serious. It’s called fraud for a reason. And sometime things happen that can’t be proven in court, don’t they?

Althouse has turned off the nonsense filter this morning.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Darrell said...
Trump is right. Every American should be outraged about vote fraud, no matter the side."

They should, but as we can see in this thread, the Dems are perfectly fine with fraud if their guy wins.

If the situation was reversed - if they had gone to bed on Tuesday night believing Biden had comfortable leads in PA, WI and MI and woke up to find bundles of ballots had been found in all 3 states in the wee hours of the morning putting Trump in the lead, they'd be in the streets burning their own cities to the ground.

If poll workers blocked Dem observers, they'd be screaming "fascism."

Democrats are everything - everything - they pretend to hate.

RMc said...

So now it's five states: Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and Pennsylvania. Five states that Trump won in 2016. Five states Trump was leading on election night. Five states in which he's now trailing.

I don't like Trump, didn't vote him. And I am NOT given to conspiracy theories.

But this stinks to high heaven, and if it's allowed to stand...then we have much bigger problem than simply re-electing a jerk.

mockturtle said...

Military ballots found in trash. Most of those recovered were for Trump.
100K votes all reported at once--all for Biden'
Sharpie-gate
Disallowing GOP monitors, papering over windows of vote-counting stations
Pre-election polls steered to make people take a Biden win for granted
Networks calling states for Biden with a low percentage of votes
Networks not calling states for Trump when over 90% of votes reported

ASG said...

In terms of wild things Trump has claimed, this actually is very far down list. Let’s hope he can back it up.

hombre said...

There will be peaceful demonstrations, assuming Biden doesn’t send in the Antifa/BLM Brownshirts. And the demonstrators will pick up their own trash.

The mediaswine will mischaracterize them of course.

jim said...

Michael said...
When did it become accepted wisdom that Democrats favored mail in votes? Who decided that, the pollsters? How can they have been so right about that and about nothing else.


I think the pools were so far off because some percentage of republicans have been indoctrinated for years to lie in their response to polls. Rush Limbaugh has pushed that for years, Operation Chaos. It is what it is, but sounds sort of Islamic to me.

But if the question is asked whether you plan to vote by mail, democrats and independents are likely to answer honestly. Anyway, might there not be actual voter statistics released indicating the party affiliations of those who requested mail-in ballots?

Iman said...

Some choose to fiddle while Rome burns.

jim said...

2 of those 5 states where Trump led at some point on election night have republican governors, and enough electors to put Biden over the top.

bagoh20 said...

Howard, your place in our hearts and minds is secure. There's no need to run up the score now.

hombre said...

Black demagogues like Blow, Lemon and Mad Maxine are castigating blacks who left the Dem plantation to vote for Trump. They’re concerned that once the country knows there ARE blacks who vote for Trump it will be harder to sell the magical100,000 to 0 voting blocks for Biden in Philly, Milwaukee, Atlanta, etc.

n.n said...

"Good people on both sides". Influencing perceptions to meet expectations.

PhilaGuy said...

To all those accusing Philadelphia of shenanigans, Philadelphia says You're welcome, we love you too bro. Those NYC guys, Trump and Giuliani are shocked? NYC invented political shenanigans. Trump should go back to selling bridges.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Fuck Senator Pat Toomey. He is one of those Republicans who is always quick to bash Trump but never bashes any Dems. Does Toomey not see anything that troubles him about the ballot counting chaos?

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

It says something - that the modern democrat party can only win by cheating.

Perhaps the GOP should do something big to make democrat cheating illegal.
In this modern age - it is a sad joke that the left are allowed such shenanigans.
It doesn't help that the media are OK with it. They cover it up because they are not neutral... they are not professional.

Mark said...

"If the situation was reversed - if they had gone to bed on Tuesday night believing Biden had comfortable leads in PA, WI and MI and woke up to find bundles of ballots had been found in all 3 states in the wee hours of the morning putting Trump in the lead"

How quickly you have forgotten Waukesha County during Scott Walker's recall when this very thing happened.

Its like you're not even trying.

n.n said...

Well, I'm glad we won't have another four years of half the country refusing to accept the outcome of an election.

Yes, there will be relief, a return to "normal". Returning to the Democrat legacy, the witch hunts, warlock trials, and protests will recapture their insidious character.

Ken B said...

So now even Althouse sees what “cruel neutrality” really is. You have had such reactions in the past, that’s why most of us scoff at “cruel neutrality”.

320Busdriver said...

Mark said...
“It wasn't overstating his case, he lied.

As was said at the debate, he is acting like a drunk crazy uncle.

When Republicans in the future talk about the dignity of the Presidential office, we will all remember Trump making up lies at the podium.

I hope you are safe from the right wing violence to come, Althouse. Trump trains are planned to head to Madison this weekend, we are staying the hell away from downtown and campus.“

This won’t age well. Again, more projection from the lying left.

n.n said...

Perhaps the GOP should do something big to make democrat cheating illegal

Perhaps they did. Perhaps they laid honey traps, ink packets, and there is forensic evidence to support their allegations and document democratic and administrative irregularities. They may have even taken selfies for posterity (e.g. Biden laptop, Clinton Water Closet, Obama payments). Let us bra... wait.

Howard said...

Trump might still win. He's taking the count to the courts doing recounts fine tooth comb etc etc so if they're really are inconsistencies that favor Biden we must trust the system to iron out those problems. I'll be surprised if this is resolved before Christmas.

Jersey Fled said...

You people might have a case if the Dems made a clean sweep of the house and the Senate as well. Now that you have gone full QAnon, do you feel better?

Maybe best to see how the runoff Senate races go in GA before you make that statement.

Big Mike said...

The President is going crazy. He's putting his interest in winning above the our interest in peace and security, trying to make us think everything is going to hell when, really, it's a pretty normal election under the highly unusual COVID circumstance.

@Althouse, if you weren’t such a gullible person, you might consider flipping the issue. The people of the United States have an interest in peace and security, surely, but we have but we have an even stronger, more overriding interest in the integrity of our elections, do we not?
In the interest peace and security shouldn’t Joe Biden stand up and say words to the effect that he appreciates the efforts being done on his behalf, but he cannot possibly govern the country where even a sizable fraction of his supporters view his election as having been accomplished through fraud, and accordingly he is conceding the election to Donald Trump.

But Joe Biden has never been an honest politician and he’s not going to start now. Plus Harris is even less honest.

I seem to recall, Althouse, that back in January, during the sham impeachment hearings, in one of your posts you asked what would happen if Trump was fraudulently removed from office (or words to that effect). I think you’re going to find out, and I don’t imagine you are going to like it.

hombre said...

Why would anyone be skeptical of an obviously mentally impaired man and an unqualified woman who ran an invisible campaign and threaten the livelihood of millions of Americans winning the Presidency at the last minute with mail order ballots defeating the incumbent who created the strongest economy in our history, is bring peace to the Middle East, etc.?

In the world of grifters, identity politics and suburban women it makes perfect sense. Right?

hombre said...

11/6/20, 8:52 AM
Blogger jim said...
‘2 of those 5 states where Trump led at some point on election night have republican governors, and enough electors to put Biden over the top.’

If only those governors counted the big city votes.

Left Bank of the Charles said...

So the Republican legislatures of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Georgia didn’t put in sufficient ballot security measures? The Trump-appointed Republican postmaster isn’t getting all the ballots clearly postmarked? Just wondering what all one has to believe to take Trump’s wild clams seriously.

Rick said...

Peglegged Picador said...
Can you please say this more clearly for the folks in the back? In case the Professor isn't being explicit enough for y'all here:Law and order = being a patriotic American,Wild and unsubstantiated allegations about pur elections = being self serving and unpatriotic at a level that undermines the very foundations of our country.


It's amazing the left went from making wild and unsubstantiated allegations about our elections to complaining about them pretty much overnight. Of course theirs went on for years with the full support of corrupt government officials and media. But left wing privilege means never applying the standards you judge others by to yourself.

Howard said...

The exception that proves the rule. Besides if they were cheating why have a runoff why don't just cheat more and take the Senate just like the presidency?

Too bad Trump could only slow down the mail in the five down to the wire swing States. It's almost as though the current quote" chaos was manufactured

rcocean said...

Althouse constant reaction to Trump shows she's actually what she claims to be libeal/leftist. Although a "reasonable" one. The Democrats are literally stealing the Presidency, and she's worried about Trump's "Tone".

Incredible.

BTW, notice that Mittens, Sasse, and the establishment R's are A-0K with Joe Biden STEALING THE presidency. Look folks, they don't care about anything except helping their rich donors and slowing down - not stopping - the Left-wing Democrat takeover. Mittens and his ilk will be happy to sign on to $500 Billion for climate change, left-wing judges, and open borders. Just give him some Low Corporate tax rates and he's happy.

Rick said...

So the Republican legislatures of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Georgia didn’t put in sufficient ballot security measures?

Any ballot security measure can be compromised if the measures are suspended or not followed, say by expelling poll watchers from the facilities. If someone were truly interested in fair elections they would treat such security suspensions as a problem. Making excuses for these failures instead reveals they they are only interested in covering up any problems.

PhilaGuy said...

Washington Examiner: What we are witnessing is someone who is too insecure and weak to be able to stand up and admit that he is defeated.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

MSM sees no proof of fraud, and they never will, as long as they refuse to consider the evidence.

tim maguire said...

Left Bank of the Charles said...The Trump-appointed Republican postmaster isn’t getting all the ballots clearly postmarked?

You are aware, aren't you, that the postal worker's union endorsed Biden. And the Postmaster General does not personally deliver your mail.

Amadeus 48 said...

More norms shattered? Ha! I live in Illinois where Richard J. Daley manufactured the votes that gave JFK the White House.

I am usually skeptical that vote fraud changes much except in very close races. Michigan, PA, Wisconsin at the moment are not particularly close, BUT there are so many evidences of strange behaviors. Biden did worse than Clinton in every major metropolitan area except Milwaukee, Detroit, Philadelphia, and Atlanta. And there is a tool to use to manufacture votes: the mail-in ballots.

This is crazy. We have perverted our own electoral processes and made them not worthy of anyone's trust. We need to get back to in person voting on election day.

DEEBEE said...

Your first reaction was one that has been leavened with your four years of dyspepsia for Trump. Then reading the transcript triggered (or an OMG MISTAKE0 you extreme neutrality persona

Big Mike said...

Captcha is back in lieu of moderation. Great! (I think.)

bagoh20 said...

You people saying there is no evidence are willfully ignorant or lying. Explain the problems that are well documented, and don't try the 2020 version of "the dog ate my homework", that being "some Covid-19 bullshit".

Explain why observers are being kept out, while unrealistically large batches of Biden votes are being reported out of those same locations. Go ahead. Give it a shot, or stop saying there is no evidence. You are not fooling anyone.

Birkel said...

RE: "comfortable life" comment above.

When you watch the Saint Crispin's Day speech, do you recognize you are a pussy?

I'm Not Sure said...

"Democrats are everything - everything - they pretend to hate."

Ran this through my Magic 8-Ball... Signs Point To Yes.

Jupiter said...

The fraud is self-evident, and can undoubtedly be proven. The question is, what is the remedy? File all the lawsuits you like, but on December 14, the electoral college will meet, and they will declare a winner. In recent years, there has been a lot of speculation about "faithless electors", electors who do not vote as their States instructed. The consensus seems to be that they may be punished as individuals, but their votes still determine the election. What we are likely to see this year are "faithless instructions", given by States that have ignored the wishes of their voters. So what do we do about that?

To put a point to it, when a small group of citizens attempt to usurp the lawful administration of our government, claiming, falsely, to act on behalf of a majority of their fellow citizens, how do we prevent their imposture from succeeding? Is the statute of limitations for this crime 8 weeks? Who is empowered to punish this crime? Who is not?

PhilaGuy said...

Republican senator Pat Toomey: no evidence to support President Trump's claim that Democrats are trying to "steal" the election and called the president's words "very disturbing".

roesch/voltaire said...

This whole thing smells of sharpie gate which is completely false and had been debunked just like the claims of voting fraud will be debunked.

Birkel said...

Fine, I will add Senator Toomey to the list of Republicans who is on the take.
It's good to have that list.

PhilaGuy said...

Chris Christie: all it does is inflame without informing. And we cannot permit inflammation without information.

PhilaGuy said...

Sean Spicer: I haven't seen any evidence of it.

jim said...

I also seems to me that Trump's naked attempts to prevent voting (clear disruption of the post office, last minute suits challenging voting rules) drove up in-person voting among the very people he wanted most to suppress.

Ray - SoCal said...

President Romney was unavailable for comment:
> I got the feeling he was making wild accusations

OldManRick said...

There has to be a point where circumstantial and direct evidence overcomes "cruel neutrality".
Since I have a mathematical background not a law degree, I find the statistical evidence overwhelmingly points to fraud. As Oric Goldfinger said, "Mr Bond, they have a saying in Chicago: ‘Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, the third time it’s enemy action.'” We have many more specific actions like midnight votes, hidden vote counting, and Project Veritas videos than three times needed for enemy action. We have individual actions with probabilities so small that they defy reason. In one case the inverted exceed the number of stars in the universe. See https://thewriterinblack.com/2020/11/05/a-matter-of-probabilities/ In another (and I can't find the link now), 80% of Biden votes had no down ballot votes for the democratic candidate while only 20% of the Trump vote had no vote for the republican. The republican won by 56% while Trump lost, if both number should have been at the 20% then Biden got close to 70,000 extra votes. Statistically impossible.

Things we know about Biden:
He lies openly. There are too many examples to ignore.
He is way too touchy-feely with women and children. You've seen the videos.

Things we believe about Biden with a high probability of being true:
He is a sexual harasser, but the democrats don't care.
He has mental issues probably bordering on dementia (and probably across that border).
He was involved in the spying on Trump (which some people still refuse to acknowledge).
He has been using his positions to enrich his son and relatives (obvious that they made money that they normally won't have seen without him in his positions)
He was getting a cut or kickback on that money (I know the NYT, NPR, and MSM don't believe the laptop was real but people have done forensics on the email headers and they are real.)
The FBI, MSM, and social media are carrying water for him by ignoring and censoring information that makes him look bad.

So how long can cruel neutrality pretend that Biden is a cleanly elected, above reproach, and uncompromised President?

bagoh20 said...

Project Veritas has done some great work on this. I just sent them a donation for it.

If you want to see people admitting to doing this and explaining how they do it, go watch the videos.

Project Veritas has been sued multiple times by people they have exposed, and also sued those lying about their work. They have never lost a case.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

https://twitter.com/Harrison_of_TX/status/1324534810178707456

Who here recalls Benford's Law? Short version:

In naturally occurring numbers (say, all your expenses for a year, or lengths / widths of rivers (no, the units used don't matter, in can be inches, cm, miles, whatever) the frequency of the leftmost digit is not random. 1 will happen ~30% of the time, 2 less than that, 3 less than that, and so on to 9.

This also holds true for counts of votes for candidates in an election ward / precinct

At least, it does when there's no fraud.

The link above shows what the results look like in the cities that threw WI, MI, & PA "to" Biden. Comparing the Trump results with the Biden results

When you see 3 & 4 digit results rising up like that? It's the middle finger of fraud, flipping you off

Ken B said...

Joe Norman:

The issue is not that this election was certainly decided by fraud (although it is possible)

It is that the media and social media are aggressively pathologizing DOUBT

You’re not supposed to even doubt the integrity of our betters. You will be cancelled.

narciso said...

no this is precisely, why their were concerns about mail vote, no chain of custody, no postmarks,

Greg The Class Traitor said...

jim said...
I also seems to me that Trump's naked attempts to prevent voting (clear disruption of the post office, last minute suits challenging voting rules) drove up in-person voting among the very people he wanted most to suppress.

Um, the "last minute suits" were all by Democrats trying to get judges to change the election rules, in violation of clear SC precedent.

Every place but PA & NC, the Dems lost, because the Republicans were in the right, and the Dems were not.

For PA, the US SC ordered that the "late ballots" be segregated and not counted, to be dealt with later.

Quite a record for Trump there.

As for "caused people to vote in person"? Good. That's how they should vote. Show up, show your photo ID, and vote.

bagoh20 said...

Trump could say he's taking Hillary's advice and not conceding. Nobody seemed to have a problem with that when they thought it would be Biden. She knew about the plans to cheat, and knew it would take a while to get it done.

But, this is no longer about Trump. It'a about the cheaters and their enablers.

BJK said...

The problem I have with all of the current negotiation over vote tampering is the question of remedy. "Negotiation" is the right word, IMO. Neither side is presenting evidence of demonstratively-fraudulent ballots being counted, only the broader questions of whether votes were illegally cast and whether the scope of election fraud was significant enough to alter the results in the battleground states.

Is there a legal standard - either in statutes or case law - which addresses the result of poll workers closing the process to poll watchers? IMO, that's the logical step where persuasion efforts by the Republicans need to be improved. It's one thing to say that hundreds of thousands of votes should be excluded because election officials failed to abide by the rules...but is that what the law actually allows? Is that what Judges actually allow to happen?

I'm fairly certain the poll workers will have contaminated the results, by not sequestering the ballots in controversy. Likewise, when an absentee ballot is separated from the envelopes from which it came...how do you tie the fraudulent envelope to the fraudulent ballot? We value the privacy of the voting booth, and that privacy in-turn makes evidence of fraud nearly impossible to untangle after-the-fact.

As someone effectively resigned to the likelihood of a Biden Presidency, I do think there's value in Trump shining enough light on the process to expose bad actors, and possibly cause long-term reforms. I just don't think he's going to meet the burden of persuasion enough to change the outcome of the 2020 contest.

Meade said...

Big Mike said...
"Captcha is back in lieu of..."

Ignore captcha.

D.D. Driver said...

If this were Republican votes found in the dead of night after counting stopped everyone would be enraged and the issue would be swiftly addressed. The fact that is Dem votes should not change the outrage, but sadly for our nation, it does.

Somewhere Kloppenberg says "Well...actually..."

Three Options:
(1) Both sides are frauds.
(2) Both sides make honest mistakes.
(3) Our side makes honest mistakes but the other guys are frauds.

I tend to believe number 2, unless someone can prove (in court) otherwise.

D.D. Driver said...

This whole thing smells of sharpie gate which is completely false and had been debunked

Debunked? Someone debunked the theory that we had clairvoyant poll workers that knew in advance which way people were going to vote and specifically gave only Trump voters sharpies?

PhilaGuy said...

There are 5 or 6 supreme court justices who will very willingly give Trump the election if he can provide evidence of fraud. If it's so obvious then they will give it to him. As president he has the resources to investigate.

LA_Bob said...

I watched most of Trump's statement at the press conference. He appeared to be reading from a script or notes. He did not seem unhinged, crazy, or making "wild accusations." Quite the contrary. The only knock is that he was awfully far down in the weeds. The details are something that some "spokesperson" or attorney should have enumerated.

I've become resigned to the idea that Trump is finished. Damn shame. He has moved the country forward despite the shrieking of his enemies, Republican as well as Democrat. Biden cannot do that. He couldn't do it if he controlled big majorities in Congress.

The only good I see coming from this is that a right-of-center presidential candidate may have a good shot in 2024. By then a fair number of "swing voters" might just miss the Trump years.

Birkel said...

D.D. Driver is here to mistake things and call them debunked.

Meanwhile, the claim is that heavily Republican leaning precincts gave sharpies to everybody at that precinct, coating Eepublicans many more votes than Democraticals.

The Moby suppressive fire would be impressive if we didn't know anything about the aggressive cheating.

Michael K said...

Debunked? Someone debunked the theory that we had clairvoyant poll workers that knew in advance which way people were going to vote and specifically gave only Trump voters sharpies?

More lies from the troll. It was reported in Republican districts.

Mr. D said...

If the D's get by with it, the Republicans will cheat in the next cycle. The 2024 elections may have 127% of registered voters participating.

Birkel said...

I need one person - any person - to offer an explanation for why Biden only outperformed in Milwaukee, Detroit, Philly, and Atlanta.

What uniquely drove those vote totals that were not observed in Kansas City, or Cleveland, or Pittsburgh, or Charlotte?

The theory received so far is "Because reasons and shut up!"

Mark said...

The thing is this --

You can't force a free republic on a people, regardless of the fairness or justice of the situation. They have to want it. And do the at least the minimum to keep it.

The fact is -- most people don't want it.

Michael K said...

I tend to agree with Bob above. We almost had a real revolution. It will come when the economy collapses. That will be worse but it was too much to hope it could be done peacefully by elections.

Ray - SoCal said...

Trump is shattering another Overton Window, the one on election fraud.

And as usual when Trump destroys an Overton Window, it will be messy.

The current “good think” is some election cheating happens, but Republicans should just accept it for the good of the country.

Chris Christy, Senator Toomey, and Rick Santorum of this mindset.

The truth seems to be there is widespread cheating happens in Democratic controlled areas, even in Co and Wa.

And due to huge cheating Biden may become President.

Great article / analysis of warning flags by one of my favorite authors, ex accountant, not a Trump fan, which makes this even more powerful:
https://monsterhunternation.com/2020/11/05/the-2020-election-fuckery-is-afoot/

5M - Eckstine said...

How long until Google dePlatforms this blog? News of opinions on the election has disappeared from my social media feed unless I go to crazy Parler.

what is going on ballot harvesting and ballot curing. After a person has voted.

There are poll books for each precinct. Audit them. The only reason this isn't done on a regular basis is the cost of it.

5M - Eckstine said...

Also, what goes on is in the big margin states all ballots are counted.

In close margin states the Dems take some emotionally legal extra shots after the clock has expired. The GoP just sits there and watched them and said "o Well"

jim said...

Birkel said...
I need one person - any person - to offer an explanation for why Biden only outperformed in Milwaukee, Detroit, Philly, and Atlanta.

What uniquely drove those vote totals that were not observed in Kansas City, or Cleveland, or Pittsburgh, or Charlotte?


From what I can see Milwaukee and Cleveland were both 66-69% for Biden. I don't know Milwaukee, but Cleveland is part of a large part-suburban county.

Detroit, Philly, and Atlanta: all have large inner cities that seem to have gotten large turnouts (thanks Donald!) and middle class suburbs that went for Biden.

I mean Oakland county Michigan went 56% for Biden: that's a very bourgeois area.

TheThinMan said...

When Russia and Venezuela recently became brutal dictatorships, they didn’t have to shut down elections, they just did what the Democrats are doing now to ensure they win every time. If Trump loses, the Democrats will do to the remaining Republicans what they did to him come the next election and that’s the end of America as a free country.

D.D. Driver said...

More lies from the troll. It was reported in Republican districts.

I am a skeptic, not a liar. I'm not making any factual claims, I'm just reserving judgment until I see real proof. As someone that has (in the past) observed elections in Wisconsin for quite a few elections and recalls, allegations of voter fraud are almost always just B.S. rumors.

But, if you are right about Sharpie-gate, it will be incredibly easy to prove in court.

I Callahan said...

So the Republican legislatures of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, and Georgia didn’t put in sufficient ballot security measures? The Trump-appointed Republican postmaster isn’t getting all the ballots clearly postmarked? Just wondering what all one has to believe to take Trump’s wild clams seriously.

What's happened to you, man? There isn't even a shred of honesty in this post.

The Republican legislature of Michigan, in particular, had NO SAY in ballot security. The people of Michigan voted for wild west, mail-in balloting. And apparently you think the Trump postmaster can visit every single post office and hand-check all non-postmarked envelopes.

There is nothing wild about any of these claims when the counties in question - Milwaukee, Wayne in Michigan, Philly - have turnouts higher than in their histories (in the 90% range), where 98% of the additional votes are all going toward Biden. That's a statistical impossibility, and you and our hostess are ignoring reality.

I'll give her the benefit of the doubt; in your case, your Trump hatred is so deep you're incapable of seeing what's obvious. Get help.

I Callahan said...

Detroit, Philly, and Atlanta: all have large inner cities that seem to have gotten large turnouts (thanks Donald!) and middle class suburbs that went for Biden.

I mean Oakland county Michigan went 56% for Biden: that's a very bourgeois area.


Where are you getting the 66-69% number from? As for Oakland - it went Clinton last time, and has quite a large liberal contingent - Pontiac, Royal Oak, Farmington Hills, Oak Park, etc.

I Callahan said...

I'm just reserving judgment until I see real proof.

Are you even attempting to look for proof? There are actual videos of people marking ballots within these vote count centers.

D.D. Driver said...

I need one person - any person - to offer an explanation for why Biden only outperformed in Milwaukee, Detroit, Philly, and Atlanta.

I suspect that a lot has to do with how long the voting windows stay open. The democrats GOT entails identifying voters that you think will vote for you and getting ballots in their hands or driving them to the polls in a vehicle. The more time that voting is open, the more voters the Dems can round up. I do think the Dems play fast and loose with the legality of ballot harvesting. Without question.

Lurker21 said...

Clearly, there was voter fraud.

But was it enough to change the vote in any state?

Georgia, perhaps. Maybe Pennsylvania. Wisconsin? Arizona?

But the wider the margin between the candidates, the less likely it is that throwing out fraudulent ballots would make a difference in the result.

Faking 100,000 votes would be quite a feat.

D.D. Driver said...

There are actual videos of people marking ballots within these vote count centers.

That is not uncommon. There are protocols for remaking ballots that for one reason or another can't be read. See page 101.

OldManRick said...

Add this to your list of Democrats cheating covered up by social media. Direct testimony by a liberal with some integrity.

https://twitchy.com/samj-3930/2020/11/05/there-is-corruption-at-the-highest-level-registered-dem-and-poll-watcher-shares-video-with-disturbing-information-about-ballot-counting-in-philly/

The tweet is blocked by Twitter.

My father fought in WW2 and we won, my wife and I worked in Aerospace in technologies that help win the cold war - we weren't front line fighter, we were more like the home front. I probably had an ancestor in the Irish Brigade during the Civil war. I consider these to be some of the United States finest moments - defeating oppressive, authoritarian, and sometimes corrupt regimes. I now feel like we have given up on this and voted in favor of information oppression and corrupt politicians.

Readering said...

So Democrats in Georgia get more votes in places with Democratic voters.

It's not like Trump's rant followed some meeting where the FBI and DOJ laid out evidence of fraud to him. Instead, as he has done his entire career since the early seventies, he followed the Roy Cohn playbook and just said stuff. He has no evidence. And he has a bunch of Bozo the clowns led by Giuliani out there in the field, instead of the Amlaw 200 attorneys working for W and Baker in 2000.

mockturtle said...

If anyone believes the antifa/BLM riots will stop with a Biden win they are sadly mistaken. The destruction of America is their goal, not the election of Democrats. A Dem President might make it a little easier for the Leftists to take over the Democrat Party, though. Get read for AOC to be Speaker of the House by 2022 or 2024.

Chuck said...
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jim said...

I Callahan said...
Where are you getting the 66-69% number from?

Washington POst election results site goes down to county level:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/


There are actual videos of people marking ballots within these vote count centers.

Where can I see those videos?

Ray - SoCal said...

Which is why the Democratic Senator vote was off from Biden’s vote in swing states:
>Faking 100,000 votes would be quite a feat.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/why-does-biden-have-so-many-more-votes-democrat-senators-swing-states

Skeptical Voter said...

Well you won't see anything in the Los Angeles Times like our host's calm observations after reading the transcript. Denounce first--and ask no questins later is their standard approach.

Chennaul said...

Just to refresh some people’s memories— remember when The Left did this:

Diebold’s Political Machine

Political insiders suggest Ohio could become as decisive this year as Florida was four years ago. Which is why the state’s plan to use paperless touch-screen voting machines has so many up in arms.

Soccer moms and NASCAR dads come and go, but swing states are always in fashion. And this year, Ohio is emerging as the most fashionable of the bunch. Asked recently about the importance of Ohio in this year’s presidential campaign, one veteran of Buckeye State politics told Salon, “Ohio is the Florida of 2004.”

That label sounds ominously accurate to the many who are skeptical of computerized voting. In addition to being as decisive as the 2000 polling in Florida, they worry this year’s vote in Ohio could be just as flawed. Specifically, they worry that it could be rigged.. And they wonder why state officials seem so unconcerned by the fact that the two companies in line to sell touch-screen voting machines to Ohio have deep and continuing ties to the Republican Party. Those companies, Ohio’s own Diebold Election Systems and Election Systems & Software of Nebraska, are lobbying fiercely ahead of a public hearing on the matter in Columbus next week.


https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2004/03/diebolds-political-machine/


The media has conveniently forgot about all of that.

Balfegor said...

My view is pretty much unchanged from August:

If we're going to have a hodgepodge of in-person, absentee, and mass-mailed mail-in ballots this year, I think we maximise legitimacy by letting both sides make all their arguments before the result is certified. Doesn't mean people will accept the outcome (any more than Democrats did in 2016), but I think more people will accept it than in the alternative scenario where one side concedes, but his furious partisans think there's a slew of unexplored claims of electoral fraud out there that would have changed the outcome.

Let them fight!

Chuck said...
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Chuck said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
readering said...

Before the election, with all polls pointing to a Biden victory, Trump said the only way he could lose would be by fraud. But he took no precautions. After election, losing, he claims fraud with no evidence. How does AA attract so many commenters who support this malignant nonsense?

Chuck said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Chennaul said...

I'm just reserving judgment until I see real proof.

In Pennsylvania only in the Philly area, where the vote for Biden is significantly higher, election officials there were calling up voters so that they could “cure” their mail in ballots. Ballots that were lacking addresses, security envelopes, or signatures. Of course the longer they take to count the vote the longer they have to “correct” the vote in areas where they know—they will recuperate more Biden votes. PA election law does not allow for election officials to call up voters to “cure” their ballots.

No one in Lancaster County Pennsylvania is getting that special privilege.


And this again gets right pack to the problem in Florida 2000 where the Democrat vote is treated as more precious given that they can simultaneously stretch out the process. Maybe people remember the term cherry picking the vote.

Miami Dade even took Thanksgiving off while the rest of the country waited. That’s how special the Dems were that year.

Anyways here is a link to what is going on in the Philadelphia area:

https://6abc.com/pennsylvania-ballots-votes-voting-pa/7647945/

Chennaul said...

Also during the whole term of Trump’s presidency The Left inferred that Russian agents had influenced the election.

When voters took that to mean that the vote was hacked The Left did not correct that instead they used that as a muddy foundation to Impeach the President.

The outbreak of COVID happened before the Impeachment was over.

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