Category Archives: Election

Many People Are Saying

“And if you’re not paying attention,” Huckabee continued, “you may not realize that Joe Biden is using exactly those tactics to make sure that Donald Trump is not his opponent in 2024. Here’s the problem: if these tactics end up working to keep Trump from winning, or even running in 2024, it is going to be the last American election that will be decided by ballots rather than bullets.”

“The next stage is violence,” Carlson said. “Are you worried they’re going to try to kill you? Why wouldn’t they try to kill you?”

Trump did not directly answer. Carlson tried again later. “If you chart it out it’s an escalation,” Carlson said, recounting the two impeachments and four indictments against Trump. “So what’s next? They’re trying to put you in prison for the rest of your life, that’s not working. So don’t they have to kill you now?” Trump again avoided answering directly.

At the conclusion of the 46-minute interview, Carlson returned to the subject of potential violence. “Do you think we’re moving toward civil war?” he said. “Do you think it’s possible that there’s open conflict?”

“I don’t know,” Trump said.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) predicted "bloodshed" from the MAGA movement if Donald Trump is convicted of crimes and not permitted on state ballots. ... "But when you start telling people that they can't express their participation in this American experience through a vote, then they start looking for other ways, and they're not, the vote is the best way to do it," he continued. "The other ways are not so good. And I worry if they start to take the vote away, you could see bloodshed in this country. Like none of us want."

Total coincidence, I'm sure.

Illusion of Rising Action

"OMG Trump is in new legal jeopardy!" Repeat every two months for six years.

It's clear that Trump's narrative arc doesn't follow the standard story form of exposition, rising action, climax, denouement.

But, I'm starting to think his arc is more like a Shepard Tone:

Always rising, somehow. Yet never reaching a satisfying climax. And never really resolving.

Which is why it's so very very annoying.

The Great Divide

Lying Liars Under Oath

Some of the biggest names at Fox News have been questioned, or are scheduled to be questioned in the coming days, by lawyers representing Dominion Voting Systems in its $1.6 billion defamation suit against the network, as the election technology company presses ahead with a case that First Amendment scholars say is extraordinary in its scope and significance.

Sean Hannity became the latest Fox star to be called for a deposition by Dominion’s legal team, according to a new filing in Delaware Superior Court. He is scheduled to appear on Wednesday.

Tucker Carlson is set to face questioning on Friday. Lou Dobbs, whose Fox Business show was canceled last year, is scheduled to appear on Tuesday. Others who have been deposed recently include Jeanine Pirro, Steve Doocy and a number of high-level Fox producers, court records show.

The Bench

Hearing a lot of people complaining that the Dems don't have anyone good to run for Pres in 2024.

... checks calendar. OK, we're 29 months before the election.

So this is your reminder that in June 2006, 30 months before the 2008 election, Al Gore and Russ Feingold were the Dem poll leaders.

Nobody know nothing.

The Working Man

This is where Republicans all stand together and tell this billionaire dilettante citizen of Germany, New Zealand and America that they have no room in their blue-collar party for foreign internationalist elitists. Right?

Since March of 2021, Thiel has pumped more than $20 million into 16 political campaigns, including the Ohio Senate race where close associate J.D. Vance last month won the Republican nomination, in part by attacking Big Tech and social media censorship. Thiel also has given at least $13.5 million to acolyte Blake Masters, a Republican candidate for Senate in Arizona who serves as president of Thiel’s personal foundation and has positioned himself as an adversary of Big Tech.

New reporting shows Thiel has set his sights on transforming American culture — and funding its culture wars — through what his associates refer to as “anti-woke” business ventures. These include a right-wing film festival, a gay dating app for conservatives founded by a former Trump administration ally and a firm, Strive Asset Management, that will “pressure CEOs to steer clear of environmental, social and political" causes, said Vivek Ramaswamy, the firm’s co-founder. One example is oil companies “committing to reduce production to meet environmental goals.”

Trend

Colorado Republican candidate for governor, Greg Lopez, would like the state to do away with the popular vote in which all votes are equal and replace it with an electoral college that would give more voting power to rural counties where Republicans perform better.

And

The Platform Committee of the Texas Republican Party has proposed a state-level electoral college, modeled after the federal system, which would check the rise of Democratic urban power and leave rural areas with more say in the governance of the state.

...

The draft platform says, “Be it resolved that the state legislature shall cause to be enacted a State Constitutional Amendment creating an electoral college consisting of electors selected by the popular votes cast within each individual state senatorial district, who shall then elect all statewide office holders.”

For a while I hesitated. But now I'm perfectly content calling them the anti-democracy party.

Terrorists

Gina Bisignano, a Beverly Hills beautician who helped her fellow Trump supporters smash at a window at the Capitol, noted in court papers connected to her plea that she had marched on the building specifically after hearing Mr. Trump encourage Mr. Pence “to do the right thing.”

While in the crowd, the papers say, Ms. Bisignano filmed herself saying, “We are marching on the Capitol to put some pressure on Mike Pence.” The papers also note that once Ms. Bisignano reached the building, she started telling others “what Pence’s done,” and encouraged people carrying tools like hatchets to break the window.

Similarly, Matthew Greene, a member of the Central New York chapter of the Proud Boys, said in court papers connected to his own guilty plea that he had conspired with other members of the far-right group to “send a message to legislators and Vice President Pence” who were inside the Capitol certifying the final stage of the election.

“Greene hoped that his actions and those of his co-conspirators would cause legislators and the vice president to act differently during the course of the certification of the Electoral College vote than they would have otherwise,” the papers said.

USA PATRIOT 802(c)

(a) DOMESTIC TERRORISM DEFINED-
...
(5) the term `domestic terrorism' means activities that-- `
  (A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a 
      violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;
  (B) appear to be intended--
     (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
     (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
     (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, 
            assassination, or kidnapping; and
  (C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.'.