Tag Archives: election fraud

political news, State news

Hand-count ballots? Seriously?

Gillespie County, Texas, Republicans clearly have rocks in their heads if they believe that hand-counting every ballot cast in next year’s primary election is going to go without a hitch … or three.

Word to the wise: Don’t get any ideas, officials in other counties, about following the lead set by the Hill Country county of roughly 30,000 residents.

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, let’s see. Human frailty, flaws and tendency to mistakes are likely to cause challenges to whatever tallies the many workers are going to face when they finish their work.

The Texas Tribune reports: This summer, leaders of the GOP in counties as large as Dallas and as small as Uvalde in South Texas seriously considered hand-counting ballots for their primary elections, according to public records and interviews with election officials.

Think about Dallas County relying on thousands of people hand-counting ballots in a county populated by more than 2.6 million people.

I guess the misplaced GOP fear of machine counting has gotten pols in Gillespie County — which is overwhelmingly Republican — to push some sort of panic button.

In addition to its potential unreliability, hand-counting is going to bring tremendous additional expense to Gillespie County, which is expected to train an additional 100 workers to count the ballots individually. Sheesh!

Again, according to the Texas Tribune: Citing his opposition to hand-counting ballots, Gillespie County GOP Chair Mo Saiidi resigned in September. Days after his departure, the remaining members of county Republican leadership finalized their decision to move forward.

“I could not in good conscience continue presiding over an election using a method that I did not feel was the right process to go through,” Saiidi said. “And I felt it was flawed. I felt it was not well thought out. I didn’t think it was the right thing for the community.”

Republicans led by the ex-POTUS have thrown an unreasonable fear into political leaders who used to depend on normal county election procedures to produce valid election totals. Are those days gone, along with trust in government at any level?

Let us hope not!

national news, political news

GOP ‘fixer’ emerges as prime threat

Tim Michels has emerged as the No. 1 enemy of the nation’s democratic process. He is a dangerous man who needs to lose his effort to become Wisconsin’s next governor.

Michels is running against Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. He said something this week that — no matter how you parse it — presents an existential threat to our democracy.

Michels has declared that if he wins the election next Tuesday, that Republicans will “never again lose an election” in Wisconsin.

Think for just a moment — if you can resist the urge to throw something heavy through a large window — about what Michels is suggesting. From my perch, Michels has said he would “fix” future elections to ensure that GOP candidates emerge winners. Every single time! That’s what he said.

How does he do such a thing? By rigging elections! By tossing out votes cast for candidates he opposes! This is the very thing that the Big Liar in Chief — Donald J. Trump — said (without producing a lick of evidence) occurred in the 2020 presidential election.

Tim Michels now wants to follow Trump’s lead over the cliff by pledging to ensure that Republicans never lose an election ever again in Wisconsin.

Does anyone out there see the utter irony in this kind of chicanery? I cannot remember a major-party candidate for public office ever pledging to rig elections. Until now.

I get that it involves only one of our 50 states. However, it reveals a mindset prevalent within the ranks of a once-great political party … which has been hijacked and co-opted by those who present a serious threat to the democratic process that once was immune from such attacks.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Biden’s unity pitch hits roadblock … from Trump!

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I always knew that President-elect Biden’s promise to unify the country after four years of Donald Trump’s tenure as president would be a heavy lift.

What I didn’t know,  until just recently, was that Trump himself would be piling on the weights to make that effort even more difficult.

Donald Trump keeps insisting that Biden’s victory is the result of a “rigged election.” It is no such thing. The problem for the president-elect, though, is that so many millions of Trumpkins have bought into the clap trap that Trump is offering, not to mention the vast majority of Republican members of both congressional chambers.

Therefore, you have a situation with a Democrat– that being Biden — scoring a significant vote-count and Electoral College victory over the Republican incumbent, but with Trump’s “base” of sycophantic voters and politicians buying into the phony charge of “widespread election fraud.”

Call me a cynic, but Donald Trump has zero interest in uniting the country. He has not a scintilla of care for the damage he is doing by fomenting yet another lie. He blathers about “fake news media” endorsing Biden while at the same time offering his own fake news by suggesting voter fraud where none exists.

I have harbored some glimmer of hope that Trump eventually will concede in some fashion to the president-elect; my sense is that it won’t be a traditional concession … if it comes.

The longer this ridiculous game goes on, the harder it might get for Donald Trump to say publicly what the rest of us know already.

Which is that he has been drummed out of office!

I now worry about the worsening of the difficulty of the task of unification that awaits President Biden. What’s more, I am enraged that the future former president is putting his own narcissism in front of the nation’s future.

So help me, Hanna. Donald Trump is a dangerous man.

national news

Outrageous reaction to electoral loss

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

The English language has few words that adequately express the feelings that boil up inside me as I watch Donald Trump and his minions challenge the results of a free and fair presidential election.

Now we hear from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who denies that President-elect Joe Biden defeated Trump. Pompeo says he is planning to work in a “second Trump administration.”

Earth to Mike: There will be no “second Trump administration.” Trump lost the election. The court system will not back up the specious complaints that Trump is leveling that that the election was “stolen” from him. Donald Trump will have to face the reality that President-elect Biden defeated him handily — both in the ballots cast and in the Electoral College.

It is outrageous in the extreme that Republicans continue to stand behind a president who has lost an election.

As for Trump, he is inflicting untold damage to the very fabric of the democratic system of elections. He is challenging the integrity of a system he took an oath four years to defend and protect … for God’s sake!

We are witnessing an outrage of epic proportions, not just from the outgoing president, but from those who are endorsing his foolishness.

national news

The Russians are still at it

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

Wherever he is ensconced in the Kremlin, Russian goon in chief Vladimir Putin must be a happy man these days.

He set out in 2016 to sow fear, discord and confusion in the American electoral system. If there’s a Russian equivalent to “mission accomplished,” then Putin is saying it over and over.

Now he’s at it again. FBI Director Christopher Wray agrees with two of his predecessors — Robert Mueller and James Comey — both of whom have said the Russians would do the same thing, only more of it, this time around.

I heard today that Donald Trump, Putin’s pal in D.C., might fire Wray after the election, I guess Trump means “win or lose” the election. He doesn’t like the job Wray is doing. All he has done to incur Trump’s reported wrath is confirm what the rest of the civilized world knows already, that the Russians are up to no good once again.

They wanted to defeat Hillary Clinton in 2016. Trump invited them to look for Clinton’s missing e-mails, which they commenced doing the same day Trump made the public request.

They’re messing around now with Joe Biden’s campaign. I pray that Americans have wised up to the chicanery Putin is capable of performing.

All in all, though, Putin’s gang of crooks has enlisted the aid of none other than Donald Trump, who himself is sowing more doubt in our electoral process, claiming the existence of “rampant voter fraud” where none exists. Trump threatens to take the election to the Supreme Court if Biden gets more votes than he does. And, what to do you know, he is likely to have a fully staffed SCOTUS on hand to render some decision on whether to accept the results; that will include, in case you’ve been comatose, Amy Coney Barrett, who is about to be confirmed by the Senate in a railroad-job of a confirmation process.

I will hand it begrudgingly to Vladimir Putin. He played his hand perfectly four years ago. I am going to hope for all I am worth that we have wised up to the trickery and will send Vlad’s boy, Donald Trump, packing once we get the ballots counted.

national news

‘Most corrupt election in history?’ Really, Mr. POTUS?

Donald J. “Tweeter in Chief” Trump has made a ridiculous prediction, which of course isn’t all that unusual.

He says the 2020 presidential election will be the “most corrupt” in U.S. history.

There you have it. Does the imbecile masquerading as president offer a scintilla of evidence to back up his allegation? Of course not! He just tweets this idiocy out there.

Donald Trump is running a campaign of division, of anger, of suspicion. This is the guy who promised to “unify” the nation after the 2016 campaign, which was pretty damn divisive. He never even tried to unify anything or anyone. As former Defense Secretary James Mattis noted, Trump’s aim is to divide the nation.

So now he campaigns for re-election by issuing blind threats of corrupt election results.

I only am presuming that he is going to issue the corruption charge if former Vice President Joe Biden manages to win the election in November. If hell freezes over and Trump wins, well, my strong hunch is that he won’t say a word about “corruption” or “fraudulent voting” or “phony ballot counts.”

What is most disturbing about Trump’s latest allegation about ballot “corruption” is the absolute absence of any evidence. That is Donald Trump’s modus operandi. He blurts out these allegations, giving his base reason to cheer his nonsense; the allegations grow legs and somehow keep circulating, casting doubt over a process where none should exist. I should add that in the process Trump casts aspersions on the dedicated county and local election officials who toil to preserve the integrity of our electoral process.

Indeed, the only “corruption” I can see will occur when the Russians, the Chinese or some other hostile foreign power attacks our process as the Russians did in 2016.

If this is the best that Donald Trump can do to persuade voters to return him to office for another four years, then I submit we have an incumbent president with no plan for the future, no constructive agenda, no sense of how he intends to lead the nation or where he wants to lead us.

What’s more, if enough American voters are foolish or stupid enough to buy into this idiot’s shtick to re-elect him, then our revered system of government is far more seriously damaged than any of us ever imagined.

political news

Trump goes ballistic … to what end?

1 Comment

I have to ask: Has the president of the United States lost what passes for his mind?

Donald Trump cannot contain his anger over the recount in Florida’s race for the U.S. Senate. Rick Scott, the Republican governor who is running for the Senate, clings to a narrow lead over the incumbent Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson.

Trump has joined the fight. He now says the recount should stop. He is accusing Democrats of trying to “steal” an election. Gov. Scott, too, is challenging Sen. Nelson directly.

I am in the camp of those who want to ensure that every vote gets counted.

What is so damn troubling is that neither man has a shred of evidence to prove anything improper, let alone illegal, in the vote count.

There appears to be plenty of incompetence, particularly in Broward County, which has a sordid history of election SNAFUs. Corruption? Fraud? Thievery? Where is the evidence?

Trump has managed with his hideous interference is undermine the integrity of our electoral system. He has cast doubt on the motives of those who are trying to sort through this mess.

The president needs to shut his pie hole! He needs to back off. He needs to let the Florida authorities slog through this effort without hectoring and haranguing from the president.

As for Gov. Scott, he also needs to stop flinging accusations around recklessly. He has no evidence, either, of “corrupt liberals” seeking to destroy the integrity of the system.

I’ll concede readily that Florida is exhibiting a jaw-dropping level of incompetence. I am not willing to buy into the idiocy being bandied about by Republicans — led by the president of the United States himself — that there’s an election robbery under way.

national news

Civility now appears farther away than ever

Those of us who lament the lack of civility in our public debate between elected officials are going to be disappointed when the next Congress takes its seat in January.

We’ll have a divided legislative branch: Democrats will control the House of Representatives; Republicans will run the Senate.

The White House, of course, remains in GOP control.

Donald Trump has called — ostensibly — for “peace and harmony.” He said he wants it. He has vowed to work toward it. His performance in the wake of the midterm election suggests he doesn’t mean what he said.

Democrats are gearing up for a subpoena blizzard. The new congressional committee chairs are threatening to summon White House officials left and right to Capitol Hill. They want to question them on, oh, damn near everything under the sun.

Donald Trump now is declaring that the election that produced a Democratic takeover of the House and narrowing of the GOP margin of the Senate is a product of electoral fraud. Sound familiar? Sure it does. It’s the president’s fall-back position when the balloting doesn’t go his way.

Democrats are sure to be angry. Republicans are certain to be defiant.

Donald Trump is a lead-pipe cinch to continue his habit of lying through his teeth.

Peace and harmony are nowhere to be found.

Count me as one American who is continuing to be disappointed in our federal government.

national news, political news

FEC to Trump: Show us the proof of fraud

A federal elections commissioner has called Donald J. Trump’s bluff.

Good for her!

The challenge has come from Ellen Weintraub, a commissioner from New Hampshire, who is demanding that the president of the United States provide proof of allegations he has made about “widespread voter fraud” in the 2016 presidential election.

Trump has said “millions” of illegal immigrants voted for Hillary Rodham Clinton, resulting in her hefty popular vote margin over the actual “winner” of the presidential election.

In so doing, Trump has impugned the integrity of the U.S. electoral process, not to mention that of state and local elections officials throughout the nation.

He hasn’t produced a shred, a scintilla, a scant hint of evidence to back up what he has alleged.

It’s time for Trump to produce the goods. Weintraub said Trump has in effect accused elections officials of committing “thousands” of felony crimes.

According to The Hill: “The President has issued an extraordinarily serious and specific charge,” added Weintraub, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush. “Allegations of this magnitude cannot be ignored. I therefore call upon President Trump to immediately share his evidence with the public and with the appropriate law-enforcement authorities so that his allegations may be investigated promptly and thoroughly.”

Well, Mr. President? Play your hand, sir.

national news, political news

Trump hears critics … calls for vote probe

I’ll take all the credit I deserve for this bit of news.

Donald J. Trump has called for a full investigation of the allegations he has made about illegal immigrants voting en masse for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election. He said that so many of them voted illegally that they cost him the popular vote margin — as if it that matters. I mean, c’mon, Mr. President! You won the Electoral College … in a self-described “landslide.” That’s where it counts, right?

Yes, I was one of the many critics of the president’s blind assertion about illegal voting activity. He offered zero evidence, proof or attribution to the assertion that as many as 5 million illegal immigrants voted for Hillary.

Now he says he wants to get to the bottom of it.

Fine. Go for it, Mr. President.

But perhaps you ought to commission an independent investigation to do the job. I had called on you to sic the Department of Justice on the matter. Now I’m not so sure DOJ would be fully independent and would reach the incontrovertible decision that would settle this matter.

I happen to be among those who doesn’t believe what you have alleged. Thus, I don’t want DOJ investigators to fabricate conclusions based on what you — the boss — have alleged.

Independent investigations aren’t out of the question. They have plenty of precedent.

The president has leveled a full frontal assault on the integrity of the electoral process with his allegations. He has attacked our democratic process. He has implied that our state and local elections officials lack the integrity protect our system against illegal voting activity.

Let’s get to the truth, shall we, wherever it leads us.