The inevitable end result of our last 56 years

[Douglas Caddy]

From today's Houston Chronicle:

Cruz rages after GOP Senate losses

Texas senator faults Republican hierarchy, demands party ‘fire’ McConnell as leader

 

By Benjamin Wermund WASHINGTON BUREAU

Gabriela Bhaskar/New York Times

Sen. Ted Cruz campaigns for Herschel Walker, who is in a runoff with Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz tore into Republican leadership for blowing what he called a “generational opportunity” to win control of Congress in the midterms, calling for fellow Republicans to “fire” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

“Just like with a football coach, where you would fire a football coach if the team loses when they should’ve won — we should’ve won,” Cruz said.

The comments come as a growing number of Senate Republicans have called for the GOP to delay leadership elections set for this week after Democrats won control of the Senate over the weekend.

A victory in a Georgia runoff, meanwhile, would expand the Democratic majority to 51, and Democrats still have a shot at holding on to the House, though it appears likely the GOP will gain a slim majority there.

“I am so (angry), I cannot even see straight,” Cruz said on his podcast, which was recorded after Democrats clinched the Senate. “The rage Americans are feeling across this country, the rage I am feeling — there are almost not words to describe it.

“This opportunity was screwed up. It was screwed up badly,” he said. “And the people who are going to pay the price are the American people. The country is screwed for the next four years because of this.”

The Texas Republican is one of at least seven senators who have urged a delay in the leadership elections. The group also includes Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah, Rick Scott and Marco Rubio of Florida, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Josh Hawley of Missouri, according to Politico.

Cruz urged voters to call every Republican in the Senate to push them to get on board. That would include Cruz’s fellow Texas Republican, Sen. John Cornyn, who is a close ally of McConnell’s.

“It would be insane if we reelect the same leadership two days from now, if we say, ‘Hey nothing happened. Everything’s good. Keep rowing off the waterfall, crash into the rocks, everything’s awesome,’ ” Cruz said.

 

[Guest]

11 hours ago, Matt Allison said:

Then arguing with Matthew, Chris and John is not the route you want to take. 

These are anti-America, pro-fascist, pro-authoritarian foreign nationals whose agenda has nothing to do with truth.

Interesting comments, Matt. as per usual a very simplistic explanation for people disagreeing with you. Your comment does constitute ‘defamation of character’ on this side of the pond and very likely a similar law on yours. 
 

Would you like to apologise and retract your comments? If not, I can take a couple of routes here. Non-reply will set things in motion.
Your call. 

[Cliff Varnell]

1 hour ago, Chris Barnard said:

Interesting comments, Matt. as per usual a very simplistic explanation for people disagreeing with you. Your comment does constitute ‘defamation of character’ on this side of the pond and very likely a similar law on yours. 
 

Would you like to apologise and retract your comments? If not, I can take a couple of routes here. Non-reply will set things in motion.
Your call. 

Snowflake down...

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Cliff Varnell said:

Snowflake down...

You’re boring, Cliff. 🥱 

[Cliff Varnell]

Democracy was on the ballot. And attempts to end it were met with universal scorn.

https://thetriad.thebulwark.com/p/democracy-was-on-the-ballot-and-attempts?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=87274&post_id=84611615&isFreemail=false&utm_medium=email

[Kirk Gallaway]

On 11/13/2022 at 11:17 PM, Mark Knight said:

Now, I have no idea how elections are handled where you live. Here in southern Indiana, USA, before we go to the polls, we must have a valid government-issued ID, with signature, in order to register to vote. We must leave a copy of our signature on file to be compared with our signature on Election Day. And our bipartisan poll workers not only keep an eye on one another, but they hand the voter a PAPER ballot. The voter goes to a booth, makes his/her selection on the paper ballot, and then enters the paper ballot into a machine which reads the selections made on the ballot and tallies them [the tally is not displayed at the voting site], 

For absentee ballots, once again they are paper ballots just like the ones used at the polling site. The envelope in which the ballot is returned to the county clerk's office is initialed by poll workers before it is sent to the voter. Any ballot envelopes without the required initials are considered suspect and are not "automatically" counted. Also, the voter must sign the envelope before it is returned, and that signature is compared with the signature on file for that voter BEFORE the ballot is fed into the machine that tallies the votes by a certified poll worker. THIS is why it takes so long to process absentee ballots, as each is manually checked Again, the bipartisan, trained, and certified poll workers don't do this alone. They keep an eye on one another to ensure that no shenanigans occur by members of either party.

And early voting is handled exactly like an absentee ballot...which, for all intents and purposes, it is.

So I hardly see how electronic manipulation can occur, since these voting machines that tally the local ballots are NOT connected to the internet, and they are tested by the bipartisan county election commission prior to any voting to ensure that the votes are properly tallied. Perhaps in other jurisdictions, the election commissions are not bipartisan, though I see no reason for that to occur and EVERY reason for that NOT to occur. Perhaps in other jurisdictions, their voting is completely electronic, but without a paper ballot there can be no paper trail in the event a recount is necessary.

To you, perhaps our methods of voting here are "quaint." But there is adequate security, there are bipartisan election commissions and trained, certified, and bipartisan poll workers to ensure that no irregularities occur. If there is an extremely close race, one party or the other may request either a recanvass, in which the paper ballots are recounted by the machines, or a recount, in which a bipartisan election commission, with witnesses from both candidates, perform a hand recount. [I was a designated witness at a hand recount for a county office a few years back.] 

If a voter shows up at the wrong polling place for their voting precinct on election day, they are directed to the proper polling place. If they insist on voting at the wrong polling place, they cast what is called a "provisional" ballot, which is not tallied until and unless it is confirmed that the voter didn't also vote at another polling place. And those provisional ballots are secured by the bipartisan election officials at the polling sites until they are taken in locked boxes to the county clerk's office to be verified before being tallied.

The system here, while slightly cumbersome, has worked for years, and continues to work. If all localities in the US used a similar system [which I suspect they do], the chances for voter fraud become quite miniscule.

Mark, my experience in California is the same as yours.They have representatives of both parties at the polling stations. They do check signatures. I've used paper ballots whether I voted at the polls or by mail in voting. There are a lot of safeguards built into the election system. I think Chris's most salient point is that there is such a difference in voting and election laws between the states, so I can't say anything about other states. That's because there's no "big government " standardization on a federal level. Because of course, we're not about  "big government" in the U.S!  

heh heh

 

On 11/13/2022 at 11:17 PM, Mark Knight said:

n 11/12/2022 at 4:51 PM, Chris Barnard said:

I think they should, because digital is manipulable. I’ll say it again, and this applies to every election; the question isn’t whether there were fraudulent votes, it’s a question of to what extent? 

 

 

Of course Chris's statement is so hedged. Does anyone really think in a country of 340 million, there isn't one incident of voter fraud?

 

Let's look where the rubber meets the road. The most scrutinized election maybe in American history since the Florida Presidential election was cut short.

 

The most contested case of voter fraud in the 2020 election was in Arizona.

The Republicans forced a 2020 recount in Arizona at considerable expense to the state, purely because of what we know now to be the deception of Donald Trump. The results after a lengthy count were, of 2.1 million ballots,  to their embarrassment, they found 99 more votes for Biden and 261 fewer votes for Trump!

 

I hate to bore you with math and figures Chris, but  that means there was an error of 360 total votes out of 2.1 million votes, or a percentage of .00017 voting error, or 17 per 100,000!. So in the most contested 2020 election there was an inaccuracy of 17 per 100,000!

 

So in this case. The voting was extremely accurate.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/arizona-republicans-release-findings-widely-panned-election-audit-2021-09-24/

 

*****

Ben, If you remember. Bush went on TV to beg for funding for his "surge" in 2008. And Obama got in office and just went along with increase, which was a major failing but he did end up withdrawing to a level before he even took office by the time he left office, from 40,000 all the way to 8000!

[Matt Allison]

3 hours ago, Chris Barnard said:

Interesting comments, Matt. as per usual a very simplistic explanation for people disagreeing with you. Your comment does constitute ‘defamation of character’ on this side of the pond and very likely a similar law on yours. 
 

Would you like to apologise and retract your comments? If not, I can take a couple of routes here. Non-reply will set things in motion.
Your call. 

LOL

Are you so dumb as to not realize that there are untold numbers of your posts that can be collected and shown to reflect an anti-America, pro-fascist, pro-authoritarian slant?

Or do you just burp out your bullsh*t without ever considering that?

[Cliff Varnell]

https://ejlt.org/index.php/ejlt/article/view/173/261

“Defamation is essentially an attack on reputation', by the publication of libellous statements, which identify a person or company.  Thus 'an action for defamation ... provides a remedy to a claimant who can prove that a publication lowers his or her reputation in the view of reasonable people.'  America and England have different approaches to this area of law. In fact, according to Robert Balin, 'in many ways, libel laws in the United States and England constitute mirror images of each other--with the burden of proof placed on the claimant in the United States, but on the media defendant in the United Kingdom'.  Their different approaches stem from how they balance the right to freedom of speech against the competing right to protection of reputation. America favours protecting free speech, whilst England favours protecting reputations. Both libel approaches have attracted criticism; America for making successful defamation suits too difficult, and England for conversely making them too easy, and enabling the proliferation of libel tourism.”

<quote off, emphasis added>

[Matt Allison]

2 hours ago, Chris Barnard said:

You’re boring, Cliff. 🥱 

Obviously defamation. Better sue him, Cliff.

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, Matt Allison said:

LOL

Are you so dumb as to not realize that there are untold numbers of your posts that can be collected and shown to reflect an anti-America, pro-fascist, pro-authoritarian slant?

Or do you just burp out your bullsh*t without ever considering that?

I was rather hoping you’d say that, Matt, as I didn’t want to be unfair. Its sets a precedent, and it really says that anything goes. I do wonder how much this moment will affect you moving forward. 

[Cliff Varnell]

4 minutes ago, Chris Barnard said:

I was rather hoping you’d say that, Matt, as I didn’t want to be unfair. Its sets a precedent, and it really says that anything goes. I do wonder how much this moment will affect you moving forward. 

A promise of chrissyfits to come...

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Cliff Varnell said:

A promise of chrissyfits to come...

No need, I am not emotional about it like you guys. You had a 9 month sulk or breakdown didn’t you?! 😌

[Cliff Varnell]

Just now, Chris Barnard said:

No need, I am not emotional about it like you guys. You had a 9 month sulk or breakdown didn’t you?! 😌

Projection right on cue.

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, Cliff Varnell said:

Projection right on cue.

Deflection right on cue. 🙂 

 

Hows life, Cliff? 

[Cliff Varnell]

14 minutes ago, Chris Barnard said:

Deflection right on cue. 🙂 

 

Hows life, Cliff? 

Good!  Thanks for asking.  I actually went 16 months between posting as I work on a screenplay.  Took a break from that to weigh in on the overthrow of Diem, and the midterms.  Now I bask in schadenfreude thanks to the crypto-fascists who rooted for the GOP.

Edited November 15, 2022 by Cliff Varnell