Showing posts with label 2020 Vote. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2020 Vote. Show all posts

July 17, 2026

What He Said, and What He Didn't

There was a prime-time gabfest last night, with the president talking about himself, of course, and about our country and others. The gist of it, after he got past the chest-thumping, was that our elections aren't safe and won't be unless Congress passes the SAVE America Act. 

I removed the chest-thumping, in the interest of everyone's sanity, and added commentary; you know I can't help myself, and if you didn't want commentary, you wouldn't be here.

But we still have a major challenge that must be urgently addressed, because no country can be great without fair and honest elections. You have to trust your country because, if there can be no trust, there can be no greatness.

And that's very simple — no trust, no greatness. For many years I've called for bold, swift and decisive action to protect the integrity of America's elections. And, of course, he's called the 2020 election rigged zillions of times. In fact, he said even months before the 2020 election that the only way he could lose was if it was rigged; he did lose, so it must have been rigged. And he's said that basically every election where anyone he endorses doesn't win is rigged. They are all rigged; just ask him! Every American deserves to know that, when they cast their vote, that vote will be counted accurately in a system, (and, despite my best efforts, a good number of people still believe that's the case) and that is to make that system secure. One where cheating and interference are not just difficult, but virtually impossible. Unfortunately, the system we have today falls catastrophically short of that standard. That is absolutely not true. Even the Heritage Foundation's data says so. Tonight, I'm announcing the immediate declassification and release of critical intelligence, revealing shocking vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure. 'Shocking vulnerabilities' and verified 'cheating and interference' are vastly different things. 

This evidence shows that the election system we have dangerously exposes and really exposes, like levels never thought possible, to hacking, exploitation, and foreign interference. Just as disturbingly, this vital information has for many years been covered up and hidden from you, the American people — our beautiful, our great American people. I wonder, does that include 'the enemy from within (Dems like Adam Schiff), and the enemy from within, in my opinion, is more dangerous than China, Russia, and all these countries," the haters and losers, the Dumocrats, and all the other terms he's used to disparage anyone who doesn't agree with him? 

But that all changes right now. The documents we will release starting tonight have been gathered by the White House Government Transparency Task Force, a great group of people, along with the staff of the president's Intelligence Advisory Board, supported by our top intelligence agency chiefs who have all personally reviewed the findings we are presenting this evening and fully confirmed their authenticity.

You can see these documents for yourself at whitehouse.gov, that's whitehouse.gov, go check it out. Our purpose in disclosing this information is not to weaken confidence in elections, but to earn that confidence by confronting vulnerabilities and correcting them very, very quickly, and that's what we're doing. Um, no, that's not what's happening. You're identifying potential vulnerabilities, but you don't address them with your signature solution.

The documents cover five major areas of concern. First, they show that, over a period of years, starting during the 2020 election cycle, the People's Republic of China carried out what is believed to be the largest compromise of election data in history, resulting in China's illicit acquisition of 220 million US voter files. American voter data is readily available for a variety of reasons. 

That information includes names, addresses, phone numbers, political party preferences and other sensitive data that would be needed to register to vote and engage in other nefarious activities, which is exactly what was happening.  No evidence of nefariousness was presented. This data loss presents an unprecedented election security nightmare. The intelligence even shows that China assigned a data exploitation unit specifically to this new project. The information may present an 'election security nightmare,' but it is readily available in most states. And no evidence was presented that a security lapse or breach occured.

Compounding the travesty, the second set of documents we are releasing reveals that members of the Deep State — a very, very famous group of people, in many cases (and I can't WAIT to see who these famous people are! —  in our intelligence agency, worked to actively suppress and downplay information about the extent of China's sinister election meddling, covering it up from both the president and the American people like nobody thought was possible.

US spy agencies began learning about the compromise of voter registration files in 2020, when they discovered that tens of millions of voter data — think of that, tens of millions of voters’ data — in 18 states have been bought, stolen or hacked by China. Yet those responsible for sounding the alarm instead kept the information secret and hidden. Bought, stolen, or hacked - which is it? And if it was obtained illegally, why no threat or warning to President Xi Jinping? Maybe some new tariffs like the ones he's threatened to place on Canada for their border-hopping wildfire smoke?

They did not disclose to me as president or to anyone else. As widely reported at the time, he was notoriously uninterested in briefings and didn't even read his President's Daily Brief. Was this information hidden, or wasn't it on the list of things he liked to hear about? And to the best of our knowledge, they did not inform Congress. In fact, all they kept saying is, this is the most secure election in the history of our country — a standard, very pat line that was divvied out to say. And dozens of audits, performed by Rs and Ds alike, in states red, blue, and purple, have uncovered no significant fraud in the 2020, 2022, or 2024 elections.

The cover-up of this colossal security breach is even more disturbing in light of the additional information showing that China engaged in other election-related activities to undermine my first administration and our 2020 campaign. And at the same time, Russia Russia Russia was trying to influence our election to ensure that Trump won; that wasn't mentioned during his remarks, but it's supported by the evidence.

They did not want — and they just didn't want it. They fought like hell not to have it, Donald Trump to win, and for good reason. As the documents we are releasing show, CIA reporting explicitly stated, and I quote, in mid-2018, the Chinese Communist Party's policy was to leverage all domestic and foreign elements that were opposed to the US president in an effort to reduce the US president's votes and make him resign or prevent his reelection. Is this a good time to mention the US government's efforts to influence elections in other countries, such as sending the Vice President to Hungary to personally urge voters to keep Viktor Orban in office? Or efforts by Rudy Giuliani and others to get Ukrainians to dig up dirt on Joe Biden?

Isn't that nice? Also, in mid-2018, China was working to influence the results of the US midterm elections and later the results of the 2020 presidential election itself. Separately, in mid-2019, the Chinese government's strategy against the United States was focused on undermining domestic confidence in the US president.

They wanted to just make you sound like your president wasn't so hot, when actually your president has done a great job. His approval ratings tell a different story... And they did everything possible to do exactly that. Going on this document says, and this is by the CIA, the strategy included efforts to use Chinese contacts with big US companies to influence US business leaders to turn against the president of the United States of America. It would be hard to imagine this working; he maintained very strong support from business leaders throughout his first term.

The Chinese government sought to identify US journalists who had reported negatively on the US president and pay them large sums of money to write more negative articles about him, as many as they could and they didn't care what they said. The Chinese government wanted the US president to lose the next election. You probably don't know this, but sometimes, I seek an hourglass figure...  While the Chinese may have wanted to see more negative stories about Trump (as if there weren't enough of them flying around already), there's no confirmation they were successful in this alleged effort, just like there's no evidence I've been successful in my mission.

And the reason they wanted me to lose is because they knew I was wise to them. Charged them billions and billions of dollars' worth of tariffs and built the strongest military anywhere in the world. We have the strongest military anywhere in the world. These are exact quotes from the CIA reporting. The name of the person doing the quote is now under review, but it gets even worse.

Raw intelligence obtained by the FBI in 2020, yet buried by rogue bureaucrats, stated that China's activities even included an attempt to manufacture illegal ballots for Joe Biden. Documents show that during this period, dozens of significant CIA and NSA reports about China's election targeting were kept out of the presidential briefing. Raw intelligence, experts will tell you, is notoriously unreliable and often isn't shared until it can be validated.

These were briefings I would get almost every day; everything was kept out that was of importance. One email among intelligence analysts admitted that they had, quote, deliberately massaged the presidential daily briefing to withhold information regarding Chinese activities related to the election. Another official inside the FBI wrote that she was running, quote, a shadow government, unquote, to keep intelligence about China's election meddling from becoming known and to keep it away from the honorable press. This is explained by Fox News, including that "The documents, however, do not establish Trump's broader allegation of a politically motivated conspiracy." Rather, it was a difference of opinion on intelligence matters.

Other officials who witnessed such efforts perceived the motivations to be blatantly political. Recently, we found significant numbers of burn bags information, and this is a group of bags that were used to destroy information, given by President Barack Hussein Obama to be burned, it was supposed to be burned. I have no idea what this even means, other than that three-name guy continues to live rent-free in the FOTUS' head.

These bags were supposed to be at a different level by different people, incinerated and checked, but it never happened. Maybe we got lucky. We believe this was not done on purpose, but rather through gross incompetence of the people that were supposed to burn the bags. But the findings are stunning.

Today, I'm asking the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of Justice, the FBI and the CIA to investigate how and why such crucial information was hidden. To fire those involved in the cover up and to file criminal charges, if appropriate, against these people. It would be appropriate to investigate whether any crimes were committed; can we expect that the people in charge of those areas during Trump's first term will be among those investigated? And, of course, we don't have a DNI, and the guy who's been nominated has no intelligence experience. The qualifications of the FBI director are highly suspect as well, but yes, let's give it our best shot.

Yet concealing China's meddling was only the beginning. The third set of documents we are releasing proves that for many years, Americans were blatantly lied to about the security of our election infrastructure, including electronic voting machines and ballot counting systems, dishonest, almost all. Hold please, while I put on my seatbelt for this part: our election infrastructure itself is 'dishonest'?

They're vulnerable and they're easily compromised and people within our government knew that. Tonight, we're publishing a series of previously classified US intelligence community assessments and other reports proving that our government has long known these machines are extremely exposed to attack. As one assessment states, we judge that the United States' adversaries, including at a minimum Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, as well as non-state groups have the capability to compromise US election infrastructure. If that's true, we should certainly try everything we can to limit that ability.

That's unquote but that's some statement, isn't it, made by supposedly great patriots of our country? LOL! The people who support his allegations are "supposedly great patriots of our country?" The document goes on to further state that, quote, we assess that centralized election-related data repositories, such as voter registration databases, poll books, and other official election websites are most vulnerable to exploitation, and adversaries could use this access to these systems to disrupt election processes within the United States of America. Centralized election-related data repositories are bad? Aren't the FOTUS and his minions demanding that states turn over all their voter information to the federal government, which would actually put it in a 'centralized election-related data repository' rather than allowing the states to control their own data? Aren't they threatening to withhold Congressionally apportioned funds from states that don't comply?

Tonight, we're releasing all of those findings and spanning from January 2020 to June 2026. This is a cyber threat aimed at the very heart of our democracy. Many people have questioned whether it could actually be possible to electronically manipulate vote totals or change election results on these terrible machines.

Today, we are releasing documents that show the CIA obtained reporting of a specific plot to do a big number in favor of the corrupt Maduro regime in Venezuela, and that's exactly what happened, conspiring to digitally rig their own country's elections in 2020. And that's what they did. This reporting included precise details about methods to regime develop, to digitally alter vote totals in ways that could not be detected, even with an audit, no matter how deep they went. Reporting suggests Maduro simply ignored what the machines showed and announced totals that differed from those recorded. This is more about a person acting badly than an 'election infrastructure' failure. And we have our own example of this happening right here in the US, right? "I just need to find 11,780 votes," the most memorable line from Trump's call with Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia Secretary of State, in which he sought to overturn the state's results.

This intelligence underscores why we must take urgent action to ensure that our own system can never, ever be hacked or compromised like it was in the past. Was it? Where's the evidence? Venezuela is not America (yet, anyway). The fourth set of documents reveals that even when significant evidence of fraud has been detected, it has been buried and covered up. Among the disclosures tonight are FBI files detailing evidence of alleged fraud by a large-scale voter registration operation in Michigan.

In 2020, Michigan State Police raided a Democrat Get Out the Vote Organization, corrupt group in Muskegon, and were so concerned by what they found. They were just so concerned, they couldn't believe it, actually, that they contacted the FBI in Detroit. The documents state that some canvassers admitted to FBI agents that they signed voter registration forms in other people's names, submitted fraudulent registration for people who did not exist, and received gift cards tied to the number of applications that they produced. Fraudulent voter registration is illegal in every state in America. Multiple investigations found no evidence that any fraudulent voter registrations were submitted or that any fraudulent votes were cast.

In other words, it was pay, play and cheat. The FBI agents working on the case believe that crimes were committed, yet the Biden Department of Justice slow-walked the investigation and killed it. Actually, the Trump DOJ killed the investigation in September 2025, finding "no criminal violation or a priority threat to national security." Tonight, I'm asking the FBI director to ensure that the matter is fully investigated and to work with the Department of Justice to prosecute those responsible for any crimes.

Finally, to reveal just how vulnerable our elections continue to be, we are releasing the results of a stunning investigation by the Department of Homeland Security. According to the DHS review, state voter rolls and public records, they identified approximately 278,000 alleged non-citizens who are registered to vote in federal elections. 

Since Democrat states refuse to share their voter files the real number is actually much higher than that. Right - because there are allegations of non-citizens being registered to vote, there must be many more of them, because math... You know, like drug prices being 600%, 800%, or even 1500% lower under the current administration. Yet even this limited analysis found more than a quarter of a million foreigners illegally registered to vote. Put together, these disclosures reveal an election system so broken and so vulnerable that no one can possibly defend it. It is not defensible. Where is the data showing how many of them voted? Where is the proof that these people are all non-citizens?  Those are both important questions, the latter particularly so, because the Department of Homeland Security's SAVE database is inaccurate,

Hundreds of millions of US voter files are in the hands of foreign governments. Our machines and ballot counting systems are exposed to hacking and manipulation and corruption. China and other countries have been trying to meddle in our elections. Evidence of fraud has been buried. Hundreds of thousands of non-citizens and dead people are listed and active on the voter rolls. Repeating these statements doesn't make them true, and the risk of tampering or other vulnerabilities does not mean that those vulnerabilities have been or will be exploited.

And yet we still have elections with no voter ID (this is false; even if voter ID is not required at the polling place, it is required to register, and signature verification is a valid form of ID - and frankly, harder to fake than an ID - just ask an under-age drinker), no proof of citizenship, and tens of millions of ballots floating aimlessly through the mail (Yes, aimlessly being potmarked hours away from the local post office where they're mailed, for example.) As one example of the insanity, California's recent election for mayor of LA and governor, was held on June 2nd, long time ago, but it was just completed a few days ago, on July 10th. Think of that, much more than one month.

Took a month to count the votes. I wonder what they were doing. They counted in-person votes; they recieved over 8,423,000 ballots that were postmarked by Election Day and recieved timely per state law; they validated the signatures on the outside of the ballot with the signature on file BEFORE the ballots were opened; they mailed notices to anyone with a signature mismatch that there was an issue and provided details on how to 'cure' their ballot within ten days; they reviewed everytihng related to the cured ballots, then opened the ones that were attested to as being correct, and counted them. In short, they followed the law, and made sure that every legitimate vote was counted, which is what is supposed to happen. This is worse than any third-world country. There's no third-world country that has elections like we have. Right - they just make stuff up, or demand that people lie for them.

In a rare move, NBC and ABC fake news have both said that they would not cover this speech. They knew what it was about, because of the fact that they don't like the topic, because they know how corrupt our system is and they don't want to reveal it. They and others in the media are part of a plot. Yep - all the third-world leaders claim the press is against them, is an enemy of the people, and is fake news. Which is why the networks you're upset with all streamed the broadcast for anyone who wanted to watch. 

They want to continue this fraud for whatever reason. What? They want to keep it going. They want to protect the radical left. Huh? They can't have a great country um..? and that's true; you can't have a great country without free and fair elections. We have those here in America, and we have laws to prosecute people who try to get around the laws. Fraud like this should mean a revocation of their licenses. "Fraud like this" meaning the fake news you hate but love to criticize, denigrate, lie about, and sue, deciding to stream you rather than broadcast you? How is that fraud?  They use our public multibillion dollar in value airways for absolutely no money. Other than license fees, application fees, purchasing a station fees, and/or the FCC public auction fees... plus the cost of selling their souls to keep on the good side of whichever bully is in charge in DC.

They pay nothing. All we want is honesty in our elections and honesty in reporting. Does that include fact-checking? They pay nothing for multi-billion dollar assets. Great damage has been done to our country. Our elections were left vulnerable to being rigged and stolen, and the trust of the American people was lost. Actually, the American people's trust was stolen... This cannot be allowed to continue. The person who has single-handedly done more damage to American trust in our elections? Donald J. Trump, who has convinced people that the Democrats are so smart they could rig a presidential election but didn't bother to rig any races on the ballot. Donald J. Trump, who, knowingly on a recorded line, asked someone to find him just enough votes to win, and didn't care that he was being recorded. Donald J. Trump, he of the January 6th insurrection, who loved the people that were there, chanting to hang his vice president.

Every American, whether you're a Republican, Democrat, independent or otherwise, should be able to agree that we deserve the most secure, honest, and fair election system anywhere in the world. Secure elections should be a partisan — really, should just, we should be together Democrats, Republicans, independents, everybody, and it should not be a partisan issue. It's not a partisan issue - we all want free and fair elections, and as far as any investigations have shown, for the most part we have them. Every state has laws to deal with various types of election fraud, and people are caught and prosecuted for violations - Democrats and Republicans alike. That is as it should be. And as far as anyone has determined, there is NO evidence of fraud sufficient to influence an election. 

It should cause to unite us, not to divide us. This should be a cause, we should be united, not divided. In light of the brand new and irrefutable information, I have revealed tonight my administration is in the process of notifying the states whose election data was compromised by the People's Republic of China and many others. Again, nothing has shown that the information was compromised, or even that enough information was obtained to allow it to be compromised.

We will be working closely to mitigate any harm and we're taking swift action to ensure that sensitive voter data is better protected so we can never be bought, we can never be hacked, and we can never watch a stolen election again. That does NOT mean that all voter data should be provided to the Federal Government. One person who should know, at least as well as anyone, is the FOTUS, whose tax information was stolen and shared, along with the data of over 405,000 other individual and corporate taxpayers. Also, the voter information of everyone receiving a mail-in ballot certainly should NOT be shared with the US Postal Service, either.

Tomorrow, the Secretary of Homeland Security will hold a briefing to outline his department's recent work confirming cyber vulnerabilities in our electronic voting systems.

They are bad. We're in the process of informing governors, Senators and members of Congress of potential issues in their states. If you look at voting today, it's in such bad shape in so many states, and we are committing to fix it and we're also committing to be working with those states and local jurisdictions to help them fix and patch known technical vulnerabilities before the midterm elections. Oh, the irony! This is the guy who just fired the Election Assistance Commission folks, the leaders of the very federal agency charged with assisting states with election security, after previously getting rid of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. You can't make this stuff up.

We have very important elections coming up. We want those elections to be honest. I've also ordered DHS to notify every state about noncitizens on their voter rolls and direct them to remove all ineligible voters from the lists immediately. But most importantly, addressing this alleged crisis of election security demands that Congress must pass the SAVE America Act. How easy is that to do, unless you want to cheat. This is an absurd comment.

The only reason you wouldn't do it is you want to cheat because your policies are so bad, and your candidates are so pathetic that you can't get away or can't get elected any other way. Actually, those are the very reasons why a president would demand Texas redraw its Congressional districts off-cycle to gain him five more seats. And it's why other red states jumped on the redistricting bandwagon to curry favor with him. And why blue states foolishly fell for it, too. This landmark bill requires that all voters must show photo voter ID. How simple is that? Could I have your photo, please? Photo voter ID. He knows that is not what the bill asks for, and pretending that's all it is? It's a bald-faced lie. All voters must provide proof of citizenship. 

Are you a citizen of our country, please? And hopefully there will be no corrupt mail-in ballots, which, if you watched California and so many other places, mail-in ballots are inherently corrupt. Again, California ensured that the mailed-in ballots were NOT corrupt. So, you would have no mail-in ballots except for illness, disability, military deployment, or travel if you're going away on business or vacation. And what about you? Which of those reasons applied to your mailed-in vote in Florida's primary?

These reforms are urgently needed to stop the vulnerabilities that I've mentioned. He knows, everyone in DC knows, and anyone that has read the SAVE America Act knows that the bill does NOTHING to address voting machine vulnerabilities, foreign attempts to influence how Americans vote or who our candidates are, attempts to influece the press to report in a specific way about a candidate, individuals who make bad choices to earn bonuses or get gift cards, people who ignore actual vote tallies and use their own made-up numbers, people who try to get others to change vote totals, people who don't include things when they brief their bosses, selling or sharing voter data, or networks that don't put evyerthing the president wants on the air. To all Americans, I ask you to pick up your phone tomorrow, call your Representatives in the House and Senate and demand that they pass the SAVE America Act without delay. Together, we will restore faith and confidence in our country, and we will be bigger, better and stronger than ever before. The bill will NOT restore faith and confidence in our country, or in our elections, 

Thank you. God bless you. God bless our great military. And God bless America. Thank you very much. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO MY COMMENTS.

September 12, 2022

Sunday School 9/11/22

For your Sunday School, I'm going to noodle around in the Meet the Press classroom. What's-his-name (WHN) interviewed Vice President Kamala Harris in Houston last week, and played many clips from the interview today. 

WHN started the interview talking about how our focus "has had to shift from foreign terror to the threat from within." Harris spoke of how we were able to "hold our heads up as a defender and an example of a great democracy," and how we held ourselves up as a "role model." 

So, you look at everything from the fact that there are eleven people right now running for secretary of state, the keepers of the integrity of the voting system of their state, who are election deniers...  you couple that with people who hold some of the highest elected office in our country who refuse to condemn an insurrection on January 6th. And I think what it sends is a signal that causes people to question, “Hey, is America still valuing what they talk about?”

She said she's "very concerned" that thing like this "allow people to call into question our commitment to the principles of "what is right, what is good, what should be fought for, what should be human ideals, and certainly, the ideals of democracies... And that's a shame."

Harris said she finds "interesting" polling showing that 70% of Rs don't believe she and Biden "won the 2020 election legitimately." She's not experiencing that when she's out meeting and talking to people, which prompted WHN to ask, "do you think you talk to a lot of Republicans...?" In response, she said, "Well, I think I talk to a lot of Americans," about infrastructure, access to high-speed internet, and about choice - in particular, she mentioned the overwhelming rejection of government interference in Kansas. 

In response to his question, "what is a semi-fascist?" Harris spoke about it not being helpful when people deny elections or obstruct "the outcome of an election with the largest number of voters ever for a presidential candidate.

And when we look at where we are, I think that we have to admit that there are attacks from within, to your first question. And we need to take it seriously. And we need to stand up together, all of us, and think of this not through a partisan lens but as Americans.

WHN wondered if it was "hard to do both," calling out the obstruction and election denying and at the same time try to unite people, Harris pointed to Biden's long record of bipartisanship, and that he's been criticized for that during his career.

But there are moments in time when we have to also agree, all good people who care about our country, that there are those who right now are vividly not defending our democracy. And I think we want that our Commander-in-Chief, that the president of the United States will speak up and raise the alarm about what this means to our strength and our future, much less our integrity.

Another 'all pundits ask it' question was about Dems helping support MAGA Republicans in their primaries, even when Biden is talking about "good Republicans" and how they're not like the MAGA variety. WHN wondered if the Democratic Party was making a mistake. Harris said it wasn't up to her to tell people how to run their campaigns, and like pretty much all the administration Dems, refused to say whether it reflected badly on the party. Her focus is on "a midterm election in which so much is on the line." 

Our president has said he will not let the filibuster get in the way. If the Senate, through a majority vote, votes to pass the Women's Health Protection Act, he will sign it into law. You know what that means in the midterms? We need to hold on to the Senate and get two more. And then we can put into law the protections of Roe v. Wade. Everything is on the line when you think about the millions of women and people in America who care about them, who understand the significance of protecting a woman's right to make decisions about her own body instead of her government telling her what to do.

WHN asked if she was comfortable making changes to the filibuster for voting rights and a woman's right to choose "could end the legislative filibuster for good."  Her response?

No, I’m not. No, I'm not.

She thinks it could be set aside for these issues and still be in place for other issues, saying "that is very likely, yes."

The last section of this part of the interview was about the Former Guy, and about the certification of the next election. WHN asked how much Trump's being both a past president and a potential presidential candidate should "factor into the decision to charge him?" Harris said she "wouldn't dare tell" the DOJ what to do. She also reiterated that the current administration,

unlike the previous administration, have been very, very careful to make sure that there is no question about any kind of interference in terms of the decisions that the Department of Justice makes in that regard.

And, her opinion on "the argument that it would be too divisive for the country to prosecute a former president?"

I think that our country is a country that has gone through different periods of time, where the unthinkable has happened, and where there has been a call for justice, and justice has been served. And I think that's potentially going to always be the case in our country, that people are going to demand justice and they rightly do.

Next, WHN asked if Harris had contemplated any scenarios that might happen on January 6, 2025. She first said, "Not at all," but then said

No. I mean, well, listen, what have I thought about? I have thought about the fact that, right now, we have an election in less than two months. And if we're going to look at timelines, that's one of the most immediate timelines that I'm looking at.

Yeah, but... he asked if she'd thought about how she'd "handle a certification that did not reflect the outcome of the popular vote in the state?" 

I haven't gotten to that point yet. I have to believe that the United States Congress and all the people who have taken an oath to defend our democracy will ensure and will stand up against anyone who tries to destroy or circumvent the rules and the practices and procedures that we've had in place that have allowed a peaceful transfer of power since the inception of our nation and the founding of our nation. And getting back to the ultimate point, that is – that is what we're talking about when we think about January 6th. We have always had a peaceful transfer of power in our nation, no matter our differences, no matter how bloody-knuckled we've been in campaigns. 

And we can't say that now, WHN pointed out.

Well, certainly, we were on the verge of having a very different outcome. And the injury was still an injury for which we still are experiencing the wound. 

I'll have more from the interview for your Extra Credit. 

See you around campus. 

July 22, 2022

TGIF 7/22/22

Let's do an all good-week list today - you up for that?

Here are just a few of the notables who made this a good week, in my opinion.

The jury in Steve Bannon's contempt of Congress trial. 

They took about two hours to reach a verdict and it was the right one.

Steve Bannon, ex-White House strategist and adviser to former President Donald Trump, was found guilty by a jury Friday of criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to appear before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. 

Bannon was found guilty of two counts of criminal contempt — one for refusing to appear for a deposition before the panel and the other for refusing to produce requested documents. Each count carries a minimum potential sentence of 30 days and a maximum of one year in jail, as well as a fine of $100 to $1,000.

Naturally, he plans on appealing, but I don't care. I'm going to relish his conviction for as long as I can.

The tech team for the January 6th Committee. 

Last night's hearing was very well put together, and the video clips that were shared were carefully chosen and fit the moment perfectly. Among the highlights: Trump's Rose Garden message on the sixth, and the taping of his message on the seventh; the matching up of video from the Capitol and other testimony from the same time period, and the clips from Fox News and Fox personalities. And yes, the Josh Hawley clips - the fist pump, and the running clips, in full speed and slow motion, too. 

Mallory Nees (@The_Mal_Gallery on Twitter), who was the creative user behind several Josh Hawley running-to-music clips. 

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) may have broken a Guinness World Record on Thursday — if there’s one for guest starring in the most movies and music videos in a single night...

But the footage of Hawley was all the same: two clips that aired in prime time during the most recent hearing of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Both showed Hawley running from rioters as they poured into the building, according to the committee.

Rep. Liz Cheney, vice chair of the January 6th Committee. 

Her closing remarks at the end of last night's hearing? I don't think I'd change a single word. There were many quotable parts, certainly; here are a couple of the most meaningful. 

Here is the worst part. Donald Trump knows that millions of Americans who supported him would stand up and defend our nation were it threatened. They would put their lives and their freedom at stake to protect her. And he is preying on their patriotism. He is preying on their sense of justice. And on January 6th, Donald Trump turned their love of country into a weapon against our Capitol and our Constitution. 

And, perhaps the most important of all: the Thatcher quote. 

This room is full of history, and we on this Committee know we have a solemn obligation not to idly squander what so many Americans have fought and died for. Ronald Reagan’s great ally, Margaret Thatcher, said this: “Let it never be said that the dedication of those who love freedom is less than the determination of those who would destroy it.”  
The many Republicans who have testified including the two we met last night.

Among the Rs testifying in person? 
  • State officials from Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Arizona. 
  • A retired, highly respected conservative judge. 
  • Multiple lawyers. 
  • Former staffers for Trump and Mike Pence. 
  • A disillusioned Capitol rioter.
  • A former spokesperson for the Oath Keepers.
And, from taped testimony or news reports?
  • The contemptuous Steve Bannon. 
  • More lawyers, more staffers.
  • Members of Trump's family.
  • The House Minority Leader.
  • The Senate Minority Leader.
The case against Trump is being shared by a mostly-Democratic committee, but it's being made by the Republicans. Nothing here is meant to relieve them of their complicity or their acquiescence. And, certainly, nothing forgives them for quickly dropping their facades, their anger or frustration, and traipsing off to Mar-A-Lago to kiss the ring of the man they all fear.

But without the Republicans - Cheney, and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, of course - and all who we've heard from, we wouldn't know what we know. 

TGIF, everyone.

July 6, 2022

Wondering on Wednesday 7/6/22


Ready... Set... Wonder! 
  • I wonder why I can't yell "Fire" in a crowded theater, but folks can legally purchase so-called 'weapons of war', so-called 'assault rifles' and happily go people-hunting, mowing down children, teenagers, parents, grandparents, great-grandparents - pretty much anyone they feel like aiming at... 
  • A little bit ago, I opined that it would be discriminatory if 'life begins at fertilization' only applied to the pre-born conceived in a womb, and not to those conceived in fertility clinics. There's an article in the Boston Globe that explores this issue that I found very interesting.

First, I'm surprised at how little interest there is in regulating all embryos the same. According to a spokesperson for the National Right to Life Committee, "IVF is not even really on our radar." And second, I have to wonder why red-state legislators "in at least 10 states" have put bills out there that would treat frozen embryos the same as, you know, warm ones - and not a single one of the bills have passed. 

  • Here's another one that's got me doing some bigtime wondering. A guy who, I'd surmise, was trying to prove how manly he is, wandered around Broken Arrow, OK wearing a tactical vest and openly sporting both a pistol (in a holster) and a semi-automatic rifle. From the article, it seems pretty much everyone was nervous or scared. For example,

Employees at the Broken Arrow Justice Center ― a government building that houses the local court and police offices ― locked their doors, and someone called 911. 
Oklahoma's constitutional carry law  "allows people ages 21 and over to carry firearms in public without a permit or training." Police didn't have a lot of options to do anything, but as luck would have it, the guy was also carrying brass knuckles, which are illegal under both state and city law. 

I have a hard time with open carry laws, I really do - especially ones that allow rifles to be slung casually over someone's shoulder like a purse. And I don't wonder at all why the sheriff said, "nobody needs to be walking down the street with a rifle. But I don’t make the laws; we just try to live by them and do a very difficult job in a world that’s got those people in it."

Hear, hear - even to his use of "those people" which normally I don't approve. In this case, I'll make an exception.

  • Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-we ever screwed for electing Trump, or what?) was one of the Trump minions issued a subpoena by a prosecutor in Georgia. His attorneys say they'll fight it, even though they said Graham's "neither a subject nor target of the investigation, simply a witness." I wonder, though, about their grounds for fighting it. Ok, honestly? I laughed at their grounds for fighting it.
As chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Graham was well within his rights to discuss with state officials the processes and procedures around administering elections. Should it stand, the subpoena issued today would erode the constitutional balance of power and the ability of a member of Congress to do their job.

Now, does anyone else wonder whether Graham was acting in his official capacity as ranking member - not chairman - of the Judiciary Committee when he stuck his genteel nose into the Georgia process, or do you think he was acting as a rank member of Trump's cadre of snoops and liars?

  • And the final bit of wondering tonight comes courtesy of Martha Raddatz, who hosted This Week on Sunday. Here's the silly question she asked Mary Bruce, ABC's Senior White House correspondent, to close the show.
And, Mary, we really just have about 20 seconds, but I want to go back to Uvalde. What is President Biden doing about that?

I'm not sure why she dignified the question with an answer, but she did. And when she finally got around to talking about the feds and Biden, it was to note that "it's pretty unclear" how much the feds can do, adding 

But this White House continues to point to that gun legislation they’re passing. Would that have solved this? We just don’t know.

Except we do know quite a bit, Mary.  

Anyway, here's what I'm wondering: why didn't she say, "look, Martha, President Biden is much too busy causing global inflation, global supply chain issues, global food shortages, global immigration issues, and doing too much and not enough to help Ukraine, NATO, the EU, and others, to be able to focus his attention on a single mass shooting that happened months ago. Haven't you been to a gas station lately and seen his sticker?"

What's on your wondering mind tonight? 

June 17, 2022

Happy 50th Anniversary, Watergate

Today is the 50th anniversary of Watergate, the scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. 

And I can't help drawing comparisons between that crisis and the one in which our most recent former president finds himself knee deep.

 For example, 

  • Richard Nixon had a CREEP - the Committee for the Re-Election of the President; Donald Trump is a creep. 
  • Nixon's scandal came to light with a break-in at the Watergate Hotel, a building in DC; Trump's came to light with the break-in at the US Capitol, a building in DC. 
  • Nixon dealt with shady characters in support of his winning re-election effort; Trump had Rudy Giuliani, Steven Bannon, and countless others helping him try to steal back an election he lost. 
Let's all raise a glass to the Republican who had the good sense to quit, shall we? 

June 3, 2022

TGIF 6/3/22

Hip hip hooray - it's Friday, and time for our weekly list making. I'm going to change things up a little, and do every story from the 'good week' side of the ledger, no matter what. Ready to dive in?

This first one's an easy 'good week' entry: goats are clearing brush, weeds, grass, and more in West Sacramento, CA, and it's helping lessen the damage from wildfires. According to the city's public information officer, "About 400 goats can clear two acres a day and get in places mowers can't reach," and they've already protected a housing complex by creating a firebreak. You can watch the goats being herded across a street here. Pretty cool, and much more interesting than brooms and rakes. 

Speaking of brooms, it seems finally the DOJ is cleaning up a desk or something. Former Trump Administration trade guru Peter Navarro, was indicted and charged with contempt of Congress for refusing to comply a request from the House January 6th committee to have a chat and turn over relevant documents. 

Navarro, who wrote a book on overturning the 2020 election, thinks he has executive privilege or something. He's wrong, and it could cost him two years in prison and $200K in fines if he's convicted. Should that happen, he'll probably face a much less significant penalty, but it's nice to dream...

Speaking of dreams, a boat made by New Hampshire middle-schoolers washed ashore in Norway, over 460 days after it was launched. The boat was badly damaged during its 8,000-mile journey, "losing its hull, mast and keel." Sheila Adams, the kids' science teacher, said

This project tapped into so much more than the science curriculum. The students needed to use their writing skills to inform others about their miniboat project, describe our school and town to people of other languages, just in case, and write requests to get the boat deployed."

All that, and I'd say some pretty powerful dreams to help keep their little boat together long enough to make it across the ocean.

Keeping both oars in the water, there's a non-profit that's turning mining pollution into pigments that are used in paint. Rural Action, based in Ohio, works "to create environmental change in rural Appalachian communities." Contaminated water is collected, then a base and oxygen are added, creating pigments that are being used to make paint. You can see some of the artwork created with the paints here. This isn't 'new' news, but it's new to me and it's pretty cool.

This one is new news, and it comes from Lake Tahoe. 

A scuba dive team has completed an extraordinary clean-up of Lake Tahoe after a full year of work, pulling up more than 12 tons of submerged trash. 

Organized by the nonprofit Clean Up The Lake, the team restored every inch of 72 miles of the crystal blue lake’s shoreline and sub-shore, collecting 24,797 pieces of litter weighing a total of 25,281 pounds.

Among the things they team found? Wallets and engagement rings. Which is a really good thing for the people who lost them, who probably never dreamed they'd see their belongings again.

TGIF, everyone.

May 29, 2022

In Case You Missed It (v91)

Here's your recap of last week's posts, in case you missed anything.

A couple of former Defense types were in the Sunday School classrooms. On This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Martha Raddatz had former Joint Chiefs chair Adm. Mike Mullen, while Margaret Brennan had former Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Face the Nation. Here's a bit of that interview.

On the expansion of NATO, with Finland and Sweden applying to join the alliance, Gates gives Vladimir Putin a lot of credit.

...it's an amazing thing he's done because he's -- he's gotten Sweden to abandon 200 years of neutrality... one of his many huge miscalculations in invading Ukraine is he has dramatically changed the geostrategic posture of western Europe... 

Later in the interview, Brennan asked Gates about the threat of 'polarization' here, 

which Gates has said was our "biggest threat." He hasn't seen a whole lot of improvement, although "there is one glimmer of hope," thanks to Xi and Putin - and it extends beyond the situation in Ukraine.

They've actually brought Republicans and Democrats together on Capitol Hill, and with the administration.... so maybe that's a foundation. Maybe there's a way to build on that. And, who knows, if you begin to get it in national security policy, maybe you can get it in some other places.

National Economic Director and Chief Word Salad Spinner Brian Deese was on Fox News Sunday with Martha McCollum; have fun with that one.

In your Extra Credit, we listened in with Brennan as she interviewed Florida Man Sen. Rick Scott and NY's Rep. Hakeem Jeffries; the two are leaders in their respective chamber's efforts to elect more members of their party.  

Brennan had fun trying to get Scott to explain why, if inflation is the biggest issue in the 2022 midterms, the Rs are spending so much time "relitigating 2020.".

Scott said people care that this election will be '"fair and their votes are not going to be diluted," and hope the Rs will make that happen. He also said that people "want to know what happened, why it happened" in 2020.

Well, they want to know -- they want to know that -- exactly what happened, if -- were there problems, exactly what happened. They'd like to know that. But, also, they're -- you know, they also want to make sure we win in '22. So, they -- they want to make sure that we're going to make sure their vote's not diluted. So, I think you have to -- you have to talk about making sure people understand what happened in 2020, but also make sure you know -- they know that you're going to focus on making sure that 2022 is a -- is a fair election.

Got it? It's all about making sure things are surely made sure by making sure of being sure. That's what they want. Without saying a darn thing. As long as you're talking about 2020, I guess. But not about all the fraud committed by Rs. Don't mention that. They surely don't want to know anything about that, for sure. 

And don't miss his dodging of addressing white supremacy; that was a good one, too.

All the Wondering on Wednesday was about how we can so readily legislate our way into the fray on some issues, but we're unable or unwilling to do a damn thing about mass murder.  Here's a sampling.

Last week's TGIF was a tough one; it was hard not to focus on the latest mass shooting at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, TX, even as we continue to come to grips with the murder of 10 people at a Buffalo, NY grocery store. 

Instead of my usual good week/bad week lists, I used 'expectations met' and 'not met.' Here are a couple of things that made the first of those lists.
  • Everyone who said that we need to re-implement the assault weapons ban, as if this shooting, in a state where the governor was embarrassed that residents weren't purchasing enough guns, in a state has no license/no training open carry, is the one that matters enough to get entrenched opponents of anything resembling a ban on any gun to swing over to the other side. 
  • President Biden finally signing an Executive Order on police reform, knowing as he did so that it didn't go far enough, and correctly placing the blame on elected officials who refused to work together on legislation. The EO was announced on the second anniversary of the murder of George Floyd.

And finally, on Saturday, I launched the first in a series of posts about gun safety called Yes, We Can Do Something. The series recaps recommendations friends and I have developed over years of talking about these events, or that have been suggested by other people, and that beyond the obvious (and nearly impossible to achieve) "ban assault weapons" cry we hear after every one of these horrific incidents.  

Here's an excerpt from the Introduction to the series.

My friends and I were able to give up our entrenched positions and work together to come up with things that might have a positive impact this issue; that's something that the people we elect to make to do this kind of stuff seem incapable of doing.
When they try to 'do something,' it seems that every conversation begins - and ends - with banning 'assault' weapons, changing the background check process, and implementing so-called red flag laws. Those are worthwhile changes, which they've tried several times, to no avail. And, they're trying again, now that a bunch of little children have been murdered at a school. Again. 
When they start in the same place every single time, knowing that there is virtually no chance of success, it makes me wonder why they do that, and what goal they're trying to accomplish.

And, a personal note. Last week, veritable pastiche passed the 146,000 page-view threshold. Thanks for reading, and for your comments and messages over the years. I appreciate you.

I'll be back with the next installment in the gun safety series, and for Sunday School.

January 31, 2022

Sunday School 1/30/22

I wandered into ABC's This Week classroom yesterday. Here are some highlights. The segment that got the most press, from what I could see, was the George Stephanopoulos interview with Sen. Susan Collins (R-Very Concerned) and what she didn't say. But let's start with what she did say. 

Collins appreciates adding diversity to the Supreme Court, but says the "clumsy at best" process around Biden's promised nomination of a Black woman "adds to the further perception that the court is a political institution like Congress when it is not supposed to be." And, she disagreed with George that this was the same thing President Reagan did during the 1980 campaign.

Actually, this isn't exactly the same. I've looked at what was done in both cases. And what President Biden did was as a candidate, make this pledge. And that helped politicize the entire nomination process. What President Reagan said is, as one of his Supreme Court justices, he would like to appoint a woman.

I'm very concerned with the senator's research skills - because Reagan did not say he "would like to appoint a woman." He went much further than that.

I am announcing today that one of the first Supreme Court vacancies in my administration will be filled by the most qualified woman I can possibly find, one who meets the high standards I will demand for all court vacancies. 

Not only that, but thanks to some great research and documentation, we now know Reagan did it for exactly the same reason Biden did: to secure votes from a specific demographic in order to garner his party's nomination. 

Now, to the attention-grabbing part. George asked Collins about president Trump's hint that he'd pardon January 6th insurrectionists if he gets elected in '24, and whether she could  "imagine any circumstances where (she) could support his election." Collins said Trump shouldn't have said that; she thinks we "should let the judicial process proceed." And when George pushed her on not ruling out supporting Trump, here's what she said.

Well, certainly it's not likely given the many other qualified candidates that we have that have expressed interest in running. So, it's very unlikely.

It's also very unlikely she'll commit to anything, if she can't even commit to this. 

The panel this week included political animals Donna Brazile, Donna Shalala, and Chris Christie, and Reihan Salam, president of the conservative Manhattan Institute.

Here's Brazile on SCOTUS, after noting that 108 of the 115 Supremes have been white males, some of whom "were extraordinary..."

But the fact is, 55 years after Thurgood Marshall was put on the court, 31 years after Clarence Thomas, 13 years after Sonia Sotomayor, this is a moment when the country can finally say equal justice under the law applies to everybody. It's an extraordinary move by the president. I welcome this appointment. And I'm going to fight with everything I have, to make sure that this extraordinary woman gets confirmed.

Here's Christie after noting that "elections have consequences."

...it wouldn't have been the way I would have approached it, by pre-announcing something like that, but Joe Biden won the election. He gets to make the choice. And every one of the 100 senators has a right then to scrutinize this person's background, experience, and decide whether or not they deserve lifetime tenure.

And Shalala, on both the prospect of a Black woman joining the Court and on polling showing most American just want the most qualified person. (I don't believe that for a NY minute, I've gotta tell you, but I digress). 

Well, it brings someone with a different experience, a black woman's experience. It makes the court look like America. It makes it look fairer. And I'm not surprised the majority of Americans think he ought to just pick the -- the qualified candidate. That's, in fact, an advancement, that we ought to pick the qualified candidate. But a black woman on the court, it will make a difference.

And, here's Salam, after noting he thought Biden's promise "was a mistake," because it limited his options 

... I think that one thing to keep in mind is that the Democratic coalition is awfully diverse along many different dimensions. Donna Shalala mentioned that there's such a thing as a black women's experience. When you look at the four leading contenders, as far as news reports go, these are people with dramatically different experiences and actually some subtle differences in ideological sensibilities as well... So I think that recognizing the distinctions among black women and recognizing that there are many other kinds of diversity one could bring to the bench is a good and valuable thing. And Democrats ought to keep it in mind.

Perhaps the most remarkable comment of this discussion was about the politics of the whole thing, and it came not from a panelist, but from the host. Christie set it up.

...But on the politics of this, George, for the midterms, when you have inflation where it is, when you have crime where it is, the things that affect people's everyday lives, they don't see the Supreme Court affecting their everyday lives in the same way that inflation, crime, and foreign policy crises do. So, I think it may have some small effect, but nowhere near a determinative one.

Here's the comment from Stephanopoulos.

It has rarely been a big - a big voting issue in either presidential or midterm elections...

Um, really, George? I'm Susan Collins-level very concerned with your failed memory of the 2016 and 2020 elections. The Supreme Court was one of the keys to Trump's victory in the former, and he also used it in the latter. Sheesh - everyone knows that.

I was going to end the post there, but instead I'll close with thoughts about Rs not wanting to stick a fork in a Trump 2024 run. Here's Salam's take on it.

Well, I think that it makes sense for people to want to preserve freedom of action. You do not know how the environment might change. There are a lot of Republicans, a lot of conservatives who said at the very beginning of the 2015-2016 campaign cycle that they wouldn't support Donald Trump. But then things changed. And we could condemn them. We could praise them for that. But the reality is that, you know, politics, the environment moves very, very quickly.

And, here's Brazile.

I can't imagine President Trump saying he will pardon the very same people who injured 140 policemen. I can't imagine President Trump saying at a rally that he would pardon people who said, kill Mike Pence, assassinate Nancy Pelosi. There's -- there's -- there's no place in our politics for that type of rhetoric and that type of action and leadership. So I hope the Republicans reject Donald Trump so that they can move past this movement and we can try to figure out how to bring the country together. 

From where I sit, 'bringing the country together' remains a Herculean, or even Sisyphean task, but one can always hope. I encourage you to join me in not holding your breath on this one.

See you around campus.