Sunday, 5 June 2022

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Voter Fraud Today, Voter Fraud Tomorrow, Voter Fraud Forever!

Posted: 05 Jun 2022 09:10 AM PDT

(John Hinderaker)

Last week, the New York Times published a hit piece on our friend Cleta Mitchell. Cleta, a top-notch lawyer, was a partner in an international law firm until she had to resign because leftists besieged her law firm’s clients, demanding that she be fired. She is now working on election integrity issues for the Conservative Partnership Institute.

The Times story lies from the top, beginning with its headline: “Lawyer Who Plotted to Overturn Trump Loss Recruits Election Deniers to Watch Over the Vote.” Mitchell did not “plot to overturn Trump loss,” she worked in a single state, Georgia, to examine and expose election integrity issues there. And the Times calls those who are concerned about the honesty of our elections “election deniers,” a childish smear.

The article begins:

In a hotel conference center outside Harrisburg, Pa., Cleta Mitchell, one of the key figures in a failed scheme to overturn Donald J. Trump's defeat, was leading a seminar on "election integrity."

Again, the same misrepresentation of Cleta’s post-election efforts. And the fact that the Times puts election integrity in scare quotes tells you all you need to know about the paper’s position on voter fraud.

"We are taking the lessons we learned in 2020 and we are going forward to make sure they never happen again," Ms. Mitchell told the crowd of about 150 activists-in-training.

To the extent the Times quotes Mitchell, what she says is entirely unobjectionable. So the Times fills the vacuum with smears and absurdly false characterizations:

In the days after the 2020 election, Ms. Mitchell was among a cadre of Republican lawyers who frantically compiled unsubstantiated accusations, debunked claims and an array of confusing and inconclusive eyewitness reports to build the case that the election was marred by fraud. Courts rejected the cases and election officials were unconvinced, thwarting a stunning assault on the transfer of power.

This is ostensibly a news story, not an op-ed. But when it comes to protecting the Democrats’ ability to implement a voter fraud strategy, the Times takes no chances.

This part is entertaining if you know the back story:

Asked about her project at the Pennsylvania training, Ms. Mitchell declined an interview request and asked a reporter to leave.

The Times reporter sneaked into the Harrisburg event, which was not open to the press, and cornered Mitchell in the ladies’ room, apparently a favorite liberal tactic. Cleta declined to be interviewed in the bathroom and, yes, asked the reporter to leave. It’s funny how reporters leave out the facts that make them, personally, look stupid.

The Times piece goes on and on, conflating legitimate election integrity efforts like those carried out by the Conservative Partnership Institute with flakier, if well-intentioned efforts by others. And it isn’t only the Times that gets hysterical about the idea that votes might be cast and counted honestly in upcoming elections. I learned about the Times hit job because it was reprinted on the front page, above the fold, in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, with a headline about “election deniers.”

You can learn more about CPI’s Election Integrity Network here. The site includes podcasts and a donate button. The cause is well worth supporting. And you can go here to get the organization’s Citizens Guide emailed to you.

Why do liberals go ballistic over efforts to assure honest elections? Because voter fraud is an element of the Democrats’ election strategy. Sometimes the Democrats commit voter fraud themselves, and sometimes they enable voter fraud by doing away with safeguards. In 2020, Minnesota was one of a number of states where the Democrats used fraudulent, collusive litigation to unconstitutionally change election laws so as to facilitate cheating.

Briefly, the DFL Party recruited plaintiffs to start two lawsuits, one in federal court and one in state court. The lawsuits, in which Minnesota’s Democratic Secretary of State was the defendant, alleged that on account of covid, the only safeguard on mail-in ballots–the requirement of a witness signature–should be done away with. That was a non sequitur, of course, and the Secretary of State has no legal power to change Minnesota’s election laws.

But the whole thing was set up in advance, and Secretary of State Steve Simon immediately “settled” the two lawsuits by agreeing to do away with the witness signature requirement. The settlement came on for approval before a federal judge, who refused to approve it. But the state court judge, in that case, loyally approved the settlement, and 1.8 million mail-in ballots were cast with no meaningful barrier to fraud. How many of the 1.8 million were illegal? There is no possible way to know.

That is the problem with a lack of ballot integrity: it can’t be remedied after the fact, it can only be prevented. This is why the efforts of groups like the Election Integrity Network are so important, and why leftists are so desperate to discredit them.

The current Rasmussen Reports offers a useful coda:

The new documentary "2000 Mules," which investigates evidence of widespread cheating in the 2020 presidential election, is hitting home with voters who have seen the film.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 77% of those Likely U.S. voters who have seen "2000 Mules" say the movie strengthened their conviction that there was systematic and widespread election fraud in the 2020 election. Only 19% of those who have seen the documentary say their belief in election fraud was weakened.

So far, only 15% of voters have seen "2000 Mules," the movie by conservative activist Dinesh D'Souza….

Awareness of the new documentary is much more widespread, with 41% of voters saying they've heard about "2000 Mules." That includes 50% of Republicans, 36% of Democrats and 38% of unaffiliated voters.

“Only” 15 percent have seen the film? That is a huge number. Interestingly, many Democrats join Republicans in wanting honest elections:

Among voters who have seen "2000 Mules," 85% of Republicans, 68% of Democrats and 77% of unaffiliated voters say the movie strengthened their conviction that there was systematic and widespread election fraud in the 2020 election.

Among voters who have seen the documentary, 78% say they would recommend "2000 Mules" to others regardless of whether or not they share their political beliefs. That includes 84% of Republicans, 73% of Democrats and 74% of unaffiliated voters who have seen the film.

Even among those who haven't seen "2000 Mules" yet, 57% believe it is important for the public to be aware of topics covered in the movie, including 40% who believe public awareness of the subject is Very Important. Only 17% think public awareness of the topics covered in "2000 Mules" is Not At All Important.

There is a reason why voter ID consistently polls at around 75%. Most people, including most Democrats, want honest elections. In the long run, leaders of the Democratic Party and their cheerleaders in organs like the New York Times are most likely fighting a losing battle.

The pain at the pump

Posted: 05 Jun 2022 08:01 AM PDT

(Scott Johnson)

This just in: the price of gasoline has doubled since the advent of the Biden administration. In a Republican administration, the media would declare it “a grim milestone.” I declare it a notable milestone. Never have so few done so much in so short a period of time to illustrate the malignant effects of bad public policy.

FOX News puts it this way: “On January 20, 2021, the average price for a gallon of gas nationwide was approximately $2.39. As of Saturday, the price for a gallon of gas has skyrocketed to $4.81, up five cents from Friday, according to AAA.” The FOX News platform is incredibly annoying. The Daily Mail covers the story here in a less annoying format.

It’s a difficult fact to talk away — “Putin’s price hike” is the best they can do — and it hits us in the face one way or another every day. Their advice is to suck it up and buy an electric vehicle, which is an expense most of us would prefer to avoid. Electrify yourselves, you loons.

Coincidentally, our electric grid is at risk of rolling blackouts this summer (Reuters cites federal energy officials in an online energy comment on Friday). If they can’t electrify themselves, they should black themselves out.

What about the wonder working power of drawing down the national reserve to increase supply? While the price of gasoline has climbed since January 2021, it appears to be headed further up.

JOHN adds: I paid $5.20 at the pump yesterday.

The Post takes offense

Posted: 05 Jun 2022 07:18 AM PDT

(Scott Johnson)

Politico frequently reads like an internal house organ of the Democratic Party and a key component of the Democrats’ public relations adjunct. Natasha Bertrand’s October 2020 Politico story promoting the line that the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop coverage constituted Russian disinformation is a classic disgrace. Bertrand’s story ran under the headline “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say.”

Moving on from Politico, Bertrand has failed upward. She is White House reporter for CNN.
And Politico marches on.

In the June 2 edition of Politico’s West Wing Playbook, Alex Thompson and Max Tani lead with “The trials of being an ex-Biden.” Covering the memoir of Hunter Biden’s ex-wife to be published on June 14, the story reads like advance damage control.

The story inadvertently reveals the lack of introspection on Politico’s disgrace. Thompson and Tani disparage the New York Post in passing (link in original): “[T]he personal life of the president's son's has become daily fodder for The New York Post, the Daily Mail and other right-leaning tabloids, all while his overseas business relationships remain a focus of major mainstream news outlets.”

The story also offers a quote from the book:

"Hunter tried to tell me that he came from a middle-class family," she writes. "Months later, when I went to his house for the first time, I explained to him: 'Hunt, a kid from a middle class family does not have a ballroom.'"

The editors of the New York Post have not taken kindly to the slight administered to the Post by Thompson and Tani in passing. The Post editorial is “Politico's pusillanimous pandering on Hunter Biden.”

In this case the Post’s response seems to me somewhat disproportionate to the offense. The Post editors should hammer on Bertrand’s story, its manifestation of the deep state working to support its preferred presidential candidate in the 2020 election by utterly foul means, and Politico’s service as the willing instrument of a transparent lie.

A Sensible Position On Crime and Guns

Posted: 04 Jun 2022 03:48 PM PDT

(John Hinderaker)

I haven’t written much about the latest round of gun control hysteria, mostly because I have said everything I have to say on that topic many times over the years. The liberal solutions to mass shooting incidents, which are very rare, are every bit as silly and ineffective as their solutions to crime in general, which is ubiquitous and therefore vastly more important. Defunding the police makes about as much sense as banning some arbitrarily selected category of firearm. Neither measure will do anything to stem the tide of crime and violence that has swept over us.

The National Rifle Association has a great deal more expertise on these issues than left-wing politicians, and as you might expect, the NRA’s proposals make much more sense. The NRA’s response to Joe Biden’s televised gun control speech includes this:

The NRA has long supported securing our schools so that our teachers and children will be safe. We support strict enforcement of all our nation’s laws that target violent criminals. We support prosecution and punishment of criminals who break these laws. Indeed, the NRA supports the arrest, prosecution and punishment of any violent criminal or other dangerous prohibited person who tries to purchase or possess a firearm.

The Obama administration whined about gun crime, but actual criminal prosecution of crimes involving firearms sank like a stone, compared with the Bush administration, when Obama took office.

We support fully funding law-enforcement agencies. And, we wholeheartedly support the right of any law-abiding American to defend themselves and their loved ones. Even though it’s rarely reported, more than a million law abiding Americans use firearms in self-defense every year – most without ever firing a shot. What we don’t support are senseless policies like no-cash bail that create a revolving door justice system that only endangers good citizens. And, we will fight any proposal that will disarm law-abiding Americans.

This is perhaps the most important point, which for some reason we don’t hear much about:

And, America does have a critical mental health crisis. Many are sick, too few people are able to recognize their illness, and even less get help. The sad reality is there are too few resources for those who need it. Over the last 60 years, the number of beds available at psychiatric hospitals in America has dropped by 96 percent. In 1955, there were an estimated 340 beds per 100,000 people with mental health illnesses. In 2016, that number fell to 11.7 beds per 100,000 people. We must find a way to reach these people before they hurt themselves or others. And, we must fund places for these people to find refuge and treatment.

Emphasis added. The U.S. once had a mental health care system, but it was dismantled after a couple of unusually stupid movies portrayed closing down mental hospitals as a species of liberation. Now the mentally ill are either tossed out onto the streets or remitted to the care of their families, who often are entirely unable to deal with them. The Sandy Hook murderer killed his mother; the Uvalde murderer shot his grandmother. The liberals’ idea that families can cope with the seriously mentally ill is delusional.

Until this country develops an actual, functioning mental health care system that includes identification and hospitalization of the dangerously mentally ill on a reasonably consistent basis, we will continue to see high crime rates as well as occasional explosions of mass violence by the deranged.

Life In the City [Updated]

Posted: 04 Jun 2022 02:59 PM PDT

(John Hinderaker)

The City of Minneapolis, that is. Not too many years ago, Minneapolis was known as a safe place. But that seems like another galaxy at this point. Last night, a gun battle broke out on Fraternity Row at the University of Minnesota. I don’t think the criminals were frat brothers. You can hear the gun battle in this surveillance video, from an alley that I take it is behind the fraternity buildings:


It’s all in a day's work in what must be the worst-governed city in the United States.

UPDATE: This video of the gun battle was shot from a different position, not in the alley behind the frat houses, but looking out on University Avenue. University Avenue is one of the major streets in the Twin Cities–named, obviously, after the fact that it runs through the heart of the University of Minnesota. Never in the last century or more have students and others walking down University Avenue had to worry about being shot or otherwise assaulted.

But that was then, this is now:


If you like getting shot at on major avenues with no apparent police presence, Minneapolis is the city for you. But, hey: Black lives matter! And Saint George Floyd is commemorated everywhere. So it’s all OK.
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