Thursday, November 19, 2020

From the Flogging Dead Horses Department Again: No Widespread Vote Fraud; Increasing Threats of Violence



This nightmare is not close to being over yet. The Trump and republican attack on the 2020 election is drifting toward violence. Trump and the GOP can now reasonably be considered to be domestic terrorists. The New York Times reports:
Confrontations have escalated in swing states, with elections officials in both parties facing threats of violence, as the president and other Republicans try to subvert the country’s voting system.
[a Trump lie] President Trump’s false accusations that voter fraud denied him re-election are causing escalating confrontations in swing states across the country, leading to threats of violence against officials in both parties and subverting even the most routine steps in the electoral process.

In Arizona on Wednesday, the Democratic secretary of state, Katie Hobbs, issued a statement lamenting the “consistent and systematic undermining of trust” in the elections and called on Republican officials to stop “perpetuating misinformation.” She described threats against her and her family in the aftermath of Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory over Mr. Trump in her state.

In Georgia, where Mr. Biden holds a narrow lead that is expected to stand through a recount concluding Wednesday night, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, has said he, too, received menacing messages. He also said he felt pressured by Senator Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally and the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, to search for ways to disqualify votes.

In Pennsylvania, statehouse Republicans on Wednesday advanced a proposal to audit the state’s election results that cited [an impicit GOP lie] “a litany of inconsistencies” — a move Democrats described as obstructionist and unnecessary given Mr. Trump’s failure to present any evidence in court of widespread fraud or other problems. Republicans in Wisconsin filed new lawsuits on Wednesday in the state’s two biggest counties, seeking a recount. Mr. Biden reclaimed both states after Mr. Trump won them in 2016.  
Nowhere was the confusion and chaos more evident than in Michigan on Tuesday night, when two Republican members of the canvassing board in Wayne County, which includes Detroit, initially refused to certify election results, pointing to minor recording discrepancies. It was a stunningly partisan move that would have potentially disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of voters from a predominantly Black city, and after a stream of public backlash, the two board members reversed their votes and agreed to certify.

Trump supporters howl in moral self-righteousness about all the (exaggerated) violence that Antifa and BLM have caused. By contrast, they raise few or no little squeaks of complaint about the radical right attacking the election and threatening innocent people. Once again, the hypocrisy of Trump and his radical right hoard is blatant. Trump and the radical right is now in domestic terrorist territory. 

The election is still under severe threat. The NYT also reported that the two Republican members of the canvassing board in Wayne County have signed affidavits stating that they have rescinded their votes to certify the results. They claimed that they were bullied into voting for the certification. In essence, this could wind up disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of Black votes in Michigan.


The American asset is doing better than could have been hoped for
Vladimir Putin must be overjoyed at how well his American asset, Trump, is performing in his assigned task of tearing American society apart and destroying the country. One can only wonder what the motivator for Trump is, bribes, blackmail, love of tyranny and hate of democracy and the rule of law and/or something else. Whatever his motivation(s), Trump is now a dictator wannabe who can reasonably be considered to be a domestic terrorist.

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