Election integrity and the transfer of power

[Jaymann]

Plonking this here because his actions around election fraud and this action by Fox are related:

Lou Dobbs show is immediately cancelled despite being Fox's top rated show. He will remain under contract presumably so he can't run off somewhere else. It is no coincidence this happened one day after election machine maker Smartmatic dropped a bomb by filing a $2.7B lawsuit against Fox and Fox personalities including Dobbs.

Edit: Usage of 'dropped' without qualification caused confusion. Sorry.

They probably don't want to cover his legal fees. Dobbs is a shit stain on the fabric of humanity.

[stessier]

Plonking this here because his actions around election fraud and this action by Fox are related:

Lou Dobbs show is immediately cancelled despite being Fox's top rated show. He will remain under contract presumably so he can't run off somewhere else. It is no coincidence this happened one day after election machine maker Smartmatic dropped a bomb by filing a $2.7B lawsuit against Fox and Fox personalities including Dobbs.

Edit: Usage of 'dropped' without qualification caused confusion. Sorry.

Top rated, but CNN notes he is a loss leader as few advertisers want to be associated with him.

[Carpet_pissr]

Plonking this here because his actions around election fraud and this action by Fox are related:

Lou Dobbs show is immediately cancelled despite being Fox's top rated show. He will remain under contract presumably so he can't run off somewhere else. It is no coincidence this happened one day after election machine maker Smartmatic dropped a bomb by filing a $2.7B lawsuit against Fox and Fox personalities including Dobbs.

Edit: Usage of 'dropped' without qualification caused confusion. Sorry.

Top rated, but CNN notes he is a loss leader as few advertisers want to be associated with him.

It’s all the truth he tells. Sheeple lib snowflakes can’t handle it. Companies don’t want to piss off said sheeple (who obviously are avid watchers of Dobbs )

[Kraken]

Here's a good (long, and worth your time) behind-the-scenes history of the secret bipartisan campaign that saved the 2020 election.

[Daehawk]

Plonking this here because his actions around election fraud and this action by Fox are related:

Lou Dobbs show is immediately cancelled despite being Fox's top rated show. He will remain under contract presumably so he can't run off somewhere else. It is no coincidence this happened one day after election machine maker Smartmatic dropped a bomb by filing a $2.7B lawsuit against Fox and Fox personalities including Dobbs.

Edit: Usage of 'dropped' without qualification caused confusion. Sorry.

Top rated, but CNN notes he is a loss leader as few advertisers want to be associated with him.

It’s all the truth he tells. Sheeple lib snowflakes can’t handle it. Companies don’t want to piss off said sheeple (who obviously are avid watchers of Dobbs )

Its sad but the part about the companies is probably much much closer to the truth rather than them being moral and good people that simply dont want anything to do with a turd.

[LordMortis]

Ah, this is delicious. Smartmatic is like the Batman we need.

Update: Right Wing Watch is on it.

https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/stat ... 7467950083

Yeah, Lindell is about to become penniless.

Couldn't even get through that much of the video. His chaotic delivery may as well have been Trump giving a campaign "speech."

[hepcat]

Here's a good (long, and worth your time) behind-the-scenes history of the secret bipartisan campaign that saved the 2020 election.

I somehow doubt Trump ever uttered

“It was all very, very strange,” Trump said on Dec. 2. “Within days after the election, we witnessed an orchestrated effort to anoint the winner, even while many key states were still being counted.”

“Orchestrated”? “Anoint”? Yeah, methinks this is speculation.

Also, not a good idea to insinuate there was a “shadow” effort going on behind the scenes. That just plays into the average Trumper paranoia.

[Daehawk]

How was it a guy who invented something that had already been invented figured this out before us?

[Grifman]

Here's a good (long, and worth your time) behind-the-scenes history of the secret bipartisan campaign that saved the 2020 election.

That was a great article - I had no idea, and I am so thankful for the people that sacrificed to make democracy possible this election. We owe them our eternal gratitude.

[Kurth]

Here's a good (long, and worth your time) behind-the-scenes history of the secret bipartisan campaign that saved the 2020 election.

Thanks for the link. Interesting piece. Something about that article really pisses me off, though. In this day and age of deep state conspiracy theorists, why go out of your way to characterize reasonable, rational, open action to protect our democratic institutions as "secretive" and "shadowy"?

The title of the article is pure click-bait: "The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election"

There's nothing secret about it. It wasn't conducted in the shadows. FFS

Passages like this are just irresponsible, sensationalism:

The handshake between business and labor was just one component of a vast, cross-partisan campaign to protect the election–an extraordinary shadow effort dedicated not to winning the vote but to ensuring it would be free and fair, credible and uncorrupted. For more than a year, a loosely organized coalition of operatives scrambled to shore up America’s institutions as they came under simultaneous attack from a remorseless pandemic and an autocratically inclined President. Though much of this activity took place on the left, it was separate from the Biden campaign and crossed ideological lines, with crucial contributions by nonpartisan and conservative actors. The scenario the shadow campaigners were desperate to stop was not a Trump victory. It was an election so calamitous that no result could be discerned at all, a failure of the central act of democratic self-governance that has been a hallmark of America since its founding.

And this:

That’s why the participants want the secret history of the 2020 election told, even though it sounds like a paranoid fever dream–a well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information. They were not rigging the election; they were fortifying it. And they believe the public needs to understand the system’s fragility in order to ensure that democracy in America endures.

You know what, Time? You don't have to write this piece to make it sound like a "paranoid fever dream." One idea: don't characterize the events you're reporting on to involve, "a well-funded cabal of powerful people . . . working to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, and steer media coverage and control the flow of information."

[or, what hepcat said above, only much more succinctly]

[malchior]

Time has gotten a little...desperate...so it does read a bit 'click-bait' like. It probably should be called 'The Very Underreported Public Effort to Save the 2020 Election'. I missed some of the sensationalism but thought the use of 'cabal' was dubious at best. Still, when I first read it I 'mapped' shadow to unofficial. It is a good read overall but my take was that I see it as a foil that shows how the big players often provide no *analysis* about what is happening. The usual format of horse race coverage that the broadcast networks sell is basically raw, slightly annotated information. They often don't go to the next step and connect the dots on these type of big picture efforts. Especially since it doesn't guide people into the 'product' they are selling.

[Holman]

Since this has been our thread to discuss USPS' Louis DeJoy...

https://twitter.com/AriBerman/status/13 ... 20648?s=20

[LawBeefaroni]

Head of Chicago's FOP:

https://twitter.com/ChipMitchell1/statu ... 2097715200

The people who stormed the U.S. Capitol are getting support from the president of Chicago’s Fraternal Order of Police lodge. John Catanzara, elected to represent the city’s 12,000 rank-and-file cops, told me last night he understands the frustration. His explanation:

...

“This is not some mass insurrection, coup attempt. They’re not destroying or burning down the fricking Capitol building. This hyperbole and this emotion that the media is spewing now, like this is some kind of end-of-times scenario, is ridiculous.”

He may gone shortly.

In January, CPD Supt. David Brown filed charges with the police board accusing Catanzara of multiple rules violations and recommending Catanzara be discharged from the department.

The violations, originally put forth by former interim superintendent Charlie Beck, allege Catanzara filed a false police report against former police Supt. Eddie Johnson for his participation in an anti-violence march that took place on the Dan Ryan expressway in July of 2018.

Catanzara claimed Johnson broke the law by allowing people to wrongfully march on the highway.

Catanzara called the move to fire him hypocritical at a time when Supt. Brown is trumpeting police reforms which encourage officers to report suspected misconduct by members of their own department.

He vows a vigorous defense suggesting he could subpoena everyone involved in allowing the 2018 anti-violence march to testify under oath at his police board hearing.

Marchers did not have a permit or permission to shut down the highway; but Illinois State Police and then-mayor Rahm Emanuel looked the other way.

An unfair labor practices complaint has also been filed accusing the City of Chicago of targeting Catanzara because of his work leading the police union.

[Isgrimnur]

The man photographed sitting at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk has been arrested and charged with three federal counts including theft of public property, federal officials said Friday.

Federal officials said Richard Barnett of Arkansas was taken into custody Friday morning in Little Rock.

A good start.

Yahoo News

The Arkansas man who was pictured with his feet on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's desk during the Jan. 6 insurrection had an outburst in court Thursday, yelling at the judge and his own lawyers that it isn't "fair" he is still in jail, KNWA reports.

Background: Richard Barnett, 60, has been asking to be freed on bond since he was arrested days after the attack at the Capitol, per the New York Times. Barnett lost his patience after D.C. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper continued his trial until May 4.

“I’ve been here a long time … another month … It’s not fair,” Barnett said, per KNWA. “You’re letting everyone else out, I need help,”

[Octavious]

He's not coming back if they let him out. He will go live in the mountains in a tent or something. It's amazing to me that Trump had them under such a spell that they STILL don't get how batshit crazy what they did is.

[YellowKing]

I think a lot of these people are under the Cranberries mentality, or "Everybody Else is Doing It, So Why Can't We?"

Easy to say you weren't doing anything wrong when you were walking around with several hundred other people. But would you have waltzed into the Senate chamber on your own?

[Smoove_B]

Good news - your one month behind bars will count towards time served.
Bad news - you have 9 years and 11 months to go.

[stessier]

Is that a federal court? There is a presumption of bail on federal court. He may have a point.

[malchior]

Is that a federal court? There is a presumption of bail on federal court. He may have a point.

It is and many have been denied bond. A few haven't so it hasn't been 100% consistent between magistrates.

[Smoove_B]

I think I'm ok with them denying bond to people that violently try to disrupt the democratic process.

[malchior]

Impressive compilation of social media tweets leading up to 1/6 from GOP members who voted against election results.

https://twitter.com/FoxReports/status/1 ... 1965552643

[Isgrimnur]

CNN

Right-wing lawyer Sidney Powell is claiming in a new court filing that reasonable people wouldn't have believed as fact her assertions of fraud after the 2020 presidential election.

The election infrastructure company Dominion Voting Systems sued Powell for defamation after she pushed lawsuits and made appearances in conservative media on behalf of then-President Donald Trump to sow doubt about the 2020 election results. Dominion claims that Powell knew her election fraud accusations were false and hurtful to the company.

In a new court filing, Powell's attorneys write that she was sharing her "opinion" and that the public could reach "their own conclusions" about whether votes were changed by election machines.

[Paingod]

Anytime these asshats are called in front of a real consequential body, the answer is the same "Hey, I didn't think anyone would believe me. It was all for show!"

See also: Alex Jones.

[LordMortis]

CNN

Right-wing lawyer Sidney Powell is claiming in a new court filing that reasonable people wouldn't have believed as fact her assertions of fraud after the 2020 presidential election.

The election infrastructure company Dominion Voting Systems sued Powell for defamation after she pushed lawsuits and made appearances in conservative media on behalf of then-President Donald Trump to sow doubt about the 2020 election results. Dominion claims that Powell knew her election fraud accusations were false and hurtful to the company.

In a new court filing, Powell's attorneys write that she was sharing her "opinion" and that the public could reach "their own conclusions" about whether votes were changed by election machines.

I agree with her. And yet she weaponized people's inability to be reasonable to attack our elections and defame dominion. She should burn even more harshly. Much in the way the drunk driver should be more culpable for causing an accident than driver who is not impaired. You made a decision to make things worse and knew it going in to the situation. Burn. Take Paxton with you.

[Smoove_B]

I think after 1/6, the "reasonable person" standard has effectively been destroyed.

[stessier]

Just want to point out that the "reasonable people" usage is because that is the bar for proving defamation. Or at least one of the bars.

[Alefroth]

So it's only defamation if your reputation is damaged among reasonable people?

As we've witnessed, the biggest danger is from the unreasonable people who believed the Big Lie.

[Carpet_pissr]

Anytime these asshats are called in front of a real consequential body, the answer is the same "Hey, I didn't think anyone would believe me. It was all for show!"

See also: Alex Jones.

Well, to be fair, Cucker Tarlson successfully weaseled out of a similar lawsuit using that argument a while back, so there is a path for these most deplorable of deplorables.

[El Guapo]

Anytime these asshats are called in front of a real consequential body, the answer is the same "Hey, I didn't think anyone would believe me. It was all for show!"

See also: Alex Jones.

Well, to be fair, Cucker Tarlson successfully weaseled out of a similar lawsuit using that argument a while back, so there is a path for these most deplorable of deplorables.

There is a slight difference that Powell said much of this stuff in court and legal filings. You would think if nothing else that would be an automatic disbarment.

[Zaxxon]

https://twitter.com/JuddLegum/status/13 ... 80064?s=19

Time to move along, I guess.

[Skinypupy]

Time to move along, I guess.

I think we all knew that was coming. Supporting those who were driving it wasn't good for business in the immediate aftermath. Now that some time has passed, conservative media has done their usual muddying of the waters (i.e. lying about what happened and their viewers believing it entirely), and the American public has moved onto the next shiny, it's pretty easy for them to go back to quietly throwing money at those who will give them the best chance at tax breaks.

Most corporations would gladly let democracy crumble if it means an extra $.03 per share for their stockholders this quarter.

[LordMortis]

Didn't 'Lyin' Ted Cruz just promise us that Republicans were no longer going accept filthy lucre from corporate interests? Like just a few days ago?

Izzy Says!!!!

https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1388111012008706057

[Alefroth]

Giving money to the GOP makes them no longer woke, so it all works out.

[Kurth]

Didn't 'Lyin' Ted Cruz just promise us that Republicans were no longer going accept filthy lucre from corporate interests? Like just a few days ago?

Izzy Says!!!!

https://twitter.com/tedcruz/status/1388111012008706057

Is it me, or is this more of the “now we’re just going to say it out loud” trend?

Why is Cruz linking opposition to these state voter suppression measures with an issue like tax breaks or anti-trust exemptions?

First off, I thought the fiction was that the voter suppression measures were non-partisan efforts intended to keep our democracy safe and defend the “purity of the ballot box,” but Cruz is saying speaking out against them is like stabbing the GOP in the back. I thought these measures were supposed to benefit the nation, Ted, not just help ensure the GOP claim and hold on to power.

Second, I thought being pro-business and advocating for tax policies that were supposed to create jobs was a fundamental plank in the GOP platform, but Cruz seems to be saying that the GOP will just do a 180 and start using the tax code punitively to punish businesses because they aren’t being nice to Republican Patriots.

Guess I missed the class in civics that taught how political parties are supposed to use the legislative process to punish their enemies and reward their friends while not giving a rat’s ass about the good of the nation.

[malchior]

Unfortunately we are seeing more saying the quiet part out loud. It's indicative that our political guardrails are increasingly ineffective.

[Blackhawk]

It doesn't matter if saying it out loud only benefits you. The only people turning against him are the people who were already against him.

To the point, the lines are drawn. People aren't changing sides. The people who still back the insanity want the insanity. What's the point of trying to convince them that it's insane? They know. They like it that way.

The days of one side trying to convince the other of the error of their ways are past.

[Skinypupy]

Ow, that gaslight burns!

[Smoove_B]

I *think* this goes here as part of "election integrity"? Though I'm not sure. Everything is blurring together.

https://twitter.com/SecretaryHobbs/stat ... 7031101443

Yesterday, observers from my office discovered a WiFi router connected to the "audit" servers.

There’s no way to ensure that ballot images, vote counts, & perhaps voter data weren’t connected to external networks or the internet.

I know this is outside my area of expertise, but I can't help but think this is insanely bad.

[malchior]

Remember this is being run by a "cybersecurity" firm. FFS.

[Jaymann]

But, her emails!