Tag Archives: vote fraud

local news

Abbott panders to ex-POTUS

“This is a weak Governor openly and shamelessly taking his orders from a disgraced former President. Governor (Greg) Abbott is wasting taxpayer funds to trample on Texans’ freedom to vote, all in order to appease his puppeteer.”

So said Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, a Democrat, in response to the governor ordering an audit of votes cast in Dallas County in the 2020 presidential election.

All told, four of Texas’s most populous counties, are going to have their votes audited in a fashion that seeks to find evidence of vote fraud.

Spoiler alert: They won’t find any such vote fraud.

The other counties are Tarrant, Harris and Collin. County judges in Tarrant and Harris counties have blasted the governor’s decision to knuckle under to the demand of the twice-impeached former POTUS, who lost his re-election effort to President Biden. All three of those counties cast most of their votes for Biden in 2020.

Oh, but what about the judge who presides over Collin County, where my wife, along with our son and daughter-in-law, also reside? He has been silent. Judge Chris Hill, another Republican, has yet to speak out about this nonsensical demand. I also should point out that Collin County voted narrowly for the former POTUS in 2020.

We are witnessing in real time a shameful exercise in intimidation by the former president of the U.S. of A., who continues to promote The Big Lie about widespread voter fraud … that does not exist!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, political news, State news

Ex-POTUS turns his phony fraud case to Texas

The Donald Trump phony vote fraud fishing expedition has cast its line into our neighborhood.

What a … joke!

The Texas secretary of state’s office, kowtowing to demands from the former Liar in Chief’s team, has announced an audit of 2020 presidential election returns in four of the state’s largest counties: Dallas, Harris, Tarrant and Collin. Three of the four counties have something in common: Voters in Dallas, Harris and Tarrant counties cast most of their votes for Joe Biden; Collin County, where my wife and I live, voted narrowly for Biden’s opponent, the 45th POTUS.

Not surprisingly, officials in the three pro-Biden counties have proclaimed it a political ploy. Collin County Judge Chris Hill — a Republican and a supporter of the 45th POTUS — so far is silent. Imagine that, eh?

This is an exercise in grotesque stupidity.

Texas 2020 election audits called political ploy by county officials | The Texas Tribune

The former POTUS carried Texas by about 5 percentage points. He now is demanding that Gov. Greg Abbott add a “forensic audit” of the state’s returns to the Texas Legislature’s special session agenda.

What the former Numbskull in Chief continues to do is denigrate the hard work of county elections officials in those counties — along with those who worked in all the rest of the state — who produced a patently safe, fraud-free, legal and fair election.

How many times must we all say this: There was no “widespread voter fraud” in Texas! However, the Big Lie lives on in what passes for the minds of the cultists who swill the poison being served by the former POTUS.

This is a disgrace to our democratic form of government.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Ex-POTUS brings Big Lie to Texas

Donald Trump said what?

That he wants Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to add a “forensic audit” of the 2020 presidential election in Texas to the Legislature’s special session agenda? Good ever-lovin’ grief!

The Texas Tribune reported:

In a letter published Thursday, Trump said, “Texans have big questions about the November 2020 Elections,” and time is running out to conduct an audit of the “2020 Presidential Election Scam” because paper ballots are kept for only 22 months after an election.

“Governor Abbott, we need a ‘Forensic Audit of the 2020 Election’ added to the call,” Trump wrote. “We’re quickly running out of time and it must be done this week.”

Despite his victory in Texas and no credible evidence of widespread fraud, Donald Trump calls for election audit legislation | The Texas Tribune

The only Texans who “have big questions about the … election” are the loons who have swilled The Big Lie being served up by the 45th POTUS. And it is a lie. The 2020 presidential election was secure in Texas. It was done legally. It resulted in POTUS 45 earning the state’s electoral votes.

What in the world is the former Numbskull in Chief seeking to do here? Don’t answer that. I know.

He is seeking to sow more doubt about an election that President Biden won fairly and squarely. He has alleged the election was “rigged” to defeat him. In truth, the only “rigging” being sought is by the ex-POTUS and his cult followers. It reminds me of how the then-Liar in Chief kept accusing the media and his foes of fomenting “fake news” while he was promoting phony stories about, oh, Barack Obama’s citizenship.

Now he wants Gov. Abbott — one of his minions — to order an audit of an election where there was no fraud?

Give me a break!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

A ‘rigged’ election?

Wait for it.

Republicans who will get their heads handed to them in California have begun reciting another version of The Big Lie.

They want to boot Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom out of office. They’re having an election tonight. Newsom will keep his hold on the governorship.

The Big Lie being resurrected by the GOP is that the result is “rigged.” It’s corrupt, they say. They are cutting their own throats by suggesting that the electoral process is not to be trusted.

I’ll be glad to sharpen the rhetorical blade for them.

The leading Republican who is challenging Newsom is radio blowhard Larry Elder. He won’t ascend to the governor’s office. Elder knows it. However, he is now offering the “rigged election” defense for the fact that Newsom’s campaign caught fire in recent days and appears poised to put down this ridiculous recall effort.

I have to say that the “rigged” allegation before any votes are counted does require a huge suspension of disbelief.

Except for this: The GOP out west has ripped a page right out of the playbook used by the disgraced, twice-impeached former POTUS.

Spoiler alert: The California election is not “rigged.”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

political news

Choose wisely, Californians

2 Comments

The simple truth is that by all rights I shouldn’t give a rat’s rear end about the outcome of an upcoming recall election out yonder in California.

Except that I do care.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is trying to stave off a recall effort that was launched by far-right-wing nut jobs angry over how he conducted himself during the first height of the COVID-19 pandemic; Newsom had the bad form to attend a dinner party where there were few masks covering the mugs of those who were attending.

Public opinion polling has indicated that Newsom well might survive this effort to remove him. The mood is pretty volatile out west, though, from what I have been able to gather.

What might save Newsom’s backside is the emergence of a nut job/fruitcake/wacko as the Republican favorite to succeed Newsom if somehow the governor fails to get a majority to agree to keep him in office.

I refer to talk-show gasbag Larry Elder, a guy I once considered to be a mainstream conservative. Not any longer. This clown — one of 45 individuals seeking to succeed Newsom — has swallowed the Big Lie about the 2020 election being pilfered from the 45th POTUS. He also is a COVID vaccine denier and has demonstrated a clear and unmistakable misunderstanding of how government is supposed to work in the nation’s most populous state.

California is about as progressive a state as there is in this great country of ours. Yet the governor there got himself into a bit of a jam. The emergence of a right-winger who’s nuttier than a Snickers bar, just might stir Gov. Newsom’s base of supporters to actually vote to keep him office.

A state that were it an independent nation would possess the world’s fifth-largest economy needs to be governed by someone who knows what the hell he is doing.

Choose wisely, Californians. The country is watching you.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news

They still believe The Big Lie

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Today was an eye-opener for little ol’ me.

I went to Rockwall to cover a town hall meeting held by U.S. Rep. Pat Fallon, a Sherman Republican and a man who describes himself as a proud conservative. I won’t discuss the congressman’s politics with this brief post.

However, I do want to take a quick look at some of the comments that came from the crowd that listened to Fallon. The comments suggested that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from the guy who lost it. No one said it out loud, but the inference was clear to me: that President Biden isn’t the duly elected winner of what has been called by many the “most secure election in U.S. history.”

He was elected. The election was fair and square and legal. It has been certified by the Electoral College and by election officials in every state of the Union.

The town hall, in a related matter, didn’t mention the 1/6 riot that erupted when the then-POTUS incited the insurrection that sought to stop the Electoral College certification.

What is so very troubling to me was to sit in a room full of individuals who continue to adhere to The Big Lie that the former Insurrectionist in Chief keeps alive. What’s more, I was a bit surprised that no one brought up the 1/6 insurrection, even if they sought justification from Rep. Fallon over what occurred that horrible and horrifying day.

I get that Rockwall County gave the 45th POTUS 68.15 percent of its vote in 2020 and 78.2 percent in 2016. I only can presume that the truth of the electoral integrity of the 2020 balloting just doesn’t sink in with most residents who continue to believe The Big Lie.

It was just staggering to me to sit there among them and listen to them say out loud — and without a hint of shame — that they endorse a notion that has been debunked time and again.

Weird.

national news

Inauguration 2.0? Hah!

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Today is supposed to be a landmark day in the history of U.S. politics, if you buy into the nuttiness of My Pillow Guy … whose name I will refrain from using in this blog.

The wacko says today is the day POTUS 45 returns to the White House, settles in behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office and resumes his role as Liar/Imbecile/Numbskull/Nitwit/Know-Nothing in Chief.

Do you believe that will happen? Neither do I.

The troublesome aspect of this is that My Pillow Guy has been very specific in predicting this would occur. On this day. Why this day? It might be that it’s Friday the 13th, which in the world of My Pillow Guy might symbolize some sort of poetic justice.

POTUS 45 is not going anywhere near the White House. Likely not ever for as long as he inhabits this good Earth. Where he goes after that, well … no one can control that.

I remain concerned about the level of stupidity and gullibility that remains out there among the voting American public over these claims of “widespread election fraud.”

Read my lips: It did not happen.

President Joe Biden was elected to the nation’s highest office. He is on the job doing what he needs to do to “restore out national soul.”

As for POTUS 45, he and My Pillow Guy are pi**ing into the wind if he harbors any idiotic notion of returning to power.

legal news

Class-action lawsuit possible?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

If ever there could be a case for a class-action lawsuit against a high-profile public figure, I am beginning to think that elections officials throughout this great nation might have one.

The former Slanderer in Chief has defamed the reputations of county, state and local elections officials everywhere by insisting that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged,” that it was fraught with “widespread voter fraud” and that it was “stolen” from him.

Class-action suits usually are filed by large numbers of people or groups who contend they have been damaged by allegations made in public that defamed their character.

POTUS 45 has done all of that, and more, by suggesting the 2020 election didn’t really deliver the presidency to Joe Biden, that the former POTUS actually won in a “landslide.” Has he produced a scintilla, a shred, a sliver, a smidgen of proof for any of this? No! He just says these things and others believe him.

I do not believe anything that flies out of the liar’s pie hole.  Nor should anyone else … but they do, to their shame.

I have known too many dedicated elections officials in counties where I have worked over nearly 40 years in daily journalism. They all take their jobs seriously. They all take an oath to defend the Constitution and have followed that oath to the letter.

I realize I am not King of the World. For that matter, neither is the former POTUS who once declared that “I, alone, can fix” what is wrong with the nation. The stark truth is that he hasn’t fixed a damn thing. Just maybe there might be enough justice left in this world for local elections officials whose reputations have been damaged to take legal action against an individual who embodies political corruption in its lowest form.

local news, national news, political news

A silver lining in the vote fraud scam?

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I want to make a declaration I never thought I could make, as it involves the 45th president of the United States, aka the ex-Moron in Chief.

All this scandalous nonsense about the security of the 2020 presidential election is going to produce future election cycles that no one is likely to be able to challenge at any level.

I credit the 45th POTUS for the security we will witness in real time of future elections: for president, for Congress, for state legislatures, for countywide office, for municipal and school district office.

Our attention has been riveted on the issue of election security. Granted, I do not buy for one second the veracity of the allegations that the 45th POTUS has leveled at the 2020 presidential election. I do, though, buy into the notion that our state and county elections officials’ alert levels have risen to unprecedented levels.

The future of our electoral system, I submit without reservation, actually looks brighter because we have spent so much time in this post-election period discussing the issue of ballot security.

I cannot begin to predict that there won’t be some crackpot in the future who will raise the noxious stink that POTUS 45 has raised since losing the 2020 election. He lost it bigly: 7 million ballots and a 306-232 tally in the Electoral College. He keeps yammering about vote fraud, but produces not a shred of evidence to substantiate his slanderous attacks on the electoral process.

There has been a positive result, though. I am quite certain the ex-Numbskull in Chief has elevated electoral security awareness all along the political chain of command. I have known many county clerks in Texas and Oregon who have worked themselves to near-collapse seeking to protect the integrity of the voting process. They have done their jobs well and with honor. Thus, they do not deserve to be slandered in the manner they have suffered from the mouth of POTUS 45.

They will no doubt redouble their efforts in the future.

I am certain our electoral process will remain secure, safe and legal.

Donald Trump

Most corrupt election? Hardly! It was most secure

1 Comment

By John Kanelis / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The 45th president of the United States likely did the nation a favor when he ran for the office in 2016.

You’ll recall how he suggested that the vote totals that Hillary Rodham Clinton received were the result of undocumented immigrants voting for her. He was wrong, of course. That didn’t happen. The 2016 election was not corrupt. Clinton, let’s remember, polled about 3 million more votes than the guy who won the election on the basis of his Electoral College victory.

However, the new POTUS then hired an individual — Christopher Krebs — to ensure the next presidential election would be secure. Krebs succeeded famously. The 2020 presidential election has been deemed by many to be the most secure in U.S. history.

So, why is the former Liar in Chief continuing to foment The Big Lie about corruption? Indeed, he fired Krebs after he made that declaration. I am left, then, to wonder why POTUS 45 would dismiss someone who did his job as prescribed.

I suppose it must be that Krebs didn’t deliver some kind of perverted message that suggested that despite the security, the protections against voter fraud that the wrong guy won the election.

Well, the right guy won. POTUS 45 lost a secure election. Yet he continues his quest to get it overturned. It is a shameful demonstration of egomania the likes of which no one likely never has seen in a former POTUS.

The ex-Imbecile in Chief keeps pounding on that drum. He can do so until hell freezes over. It won’t change the outcome, which happened to be a product of the ex-POTUS’s own making.

Go … figure.