The Conservative Cave

angrychair (13,104 posts)

Not to say we told you so

..but we told you so. Yes, I'm talking to you Jared Polis.

This is what being bipartisan gets you.

This is what being a centrist gets you.


President Donald Trump is, apparently, being advised on the midterms by former Colorado elections clerk Tina Peters. The two met Monday at the White House.


Yes, you read that correctly. Tina Peters, a convicted felon, is meeting with the president of the United States, in the oval office, on how to manipulate the outcome of the midterm elections.

Their plan?

“There is local control,” Martin said of U.S. elections. “However, the laws that govern the system, like safety and national security, are federal laws. So Tina Peters, famous Colorado clerk, was in the Oval Office today just two hours ago talking about this question. The president’s taking it seriously.”


Their pitch is that voting machines are made with foreign sourced parts and is therefore compromised and a national security threat and that Mango Mussolini should declare a national security emergency and seize all voting machines nationwide.

That is the pitch. What will come of that meeting, if anything, is the open question. The fact that he took the meeting at all and spent 2 hours discussing it with her in a one-on-one meeting, should be incredibly concerning on its own.

Im not going to hypothesize on what might happen but it is clear that they are planning something and we, as US citizens, need to take that seriously. Because they sure as hell are taking it seriously.

Reference: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/tina-peters-has-trump-s-ear-on-the-midterms/ar-AA2dKm7D

Fiendish Thingy (26,195 posts)
8. They do not control all the levers of power
They don’t control the states, and they don’t control the people, who could surround polling places and tabulation centres to create a physical barrier to prevent seizure.

Courts could act preemptively and issue injunctions blocking seizure, and governors and legislatures could order elections re-done on a new date with injunctions and armed protection in place. (This happened in Louisiana this summer)

As with all doomsday scenarios, it is critical to ask “then what?” to every assertion, and consider all variables and potential responses, including pushback and resistance from the states, courts and people, including the use of deadly force. Any discussion that doesn’t do this, and merely presumes effective success by the perpetrators, cannot be taken seriously.

bluestarone (23,207 posts)
30. I hear you and believe YOU know lots we don't know. Can i ask you a then what?
Here ya go. ICE just went into like 4 states at the same time and took there ballots and destroyed them. Here ya go, so THEN WHAT? I know this didn't happen YET but do you have a then what answer? LOTS of people here (including myself at times the closer we get) would just like this then what question answered.

Fiendish Thingy (26,195 posts)
35. I'm just a guy who reads a lot, and thinks things through before reacting.
Possible “then what?” answers (which would, of course generate “then what?” questions of their own)

1. The 4 states pre-emptively obtained injunctions against ballot seizure before election day, blocking deployment of agents.

2. No injunction, but when they arrive, ICE is met with armed state/NG forces protecting polling places/tabulation centres. They are kept at bay as a court issues an injunction within an hour of their arrival. Because some polling places have to be temporarily closed, the governor orders polls to stay open longer to compensate (this has happened many times for various reasons)

3. Rumours spread that ICE is will attempt to seize ballots, and on election day, thousands of folks who have organized ahead of time surround the targeted locations and form a human chain (plans for this are already being developed).

4. The scenario you describe succeeds, ballots are seized and either destroyed or “contaminated”, rendering them uncountable. Dozens, if not hundreds, of races cannot be certified, including for state offices and municipal races in Ruby red Republican areas. The Governor convenes an emergency session of the legislature and schedules a re-do election for two weeks later, activates the National Guard to protect voters and ballots, and seeks an injunction against the federal government.

(Ordering a re-do of an election happened this summer in Louisiana, for different reasons than what you describe)

Those are just a short list of possible answers to “then what?” Because of all the human variables involved, there could easily be hundreds more, combinations of various responses, etc.

That’s why I vigorously challenge any claim that a particular scenario will succeed, unfettered, unobstructed, without a response, reaction or resistance that interferes, impedes or renders unachievable the desired outcome.

We are dealing with incompetent buffoons who very well may try something drastic and extreme, but have a track record of failure much longer than their success. They can initiate chaos and destruction, but after that, they control almost nothing.

The most important thing to never forget is the following absolute truth:

Trump is not omnipotent, and the states and the people are not powerless

This truth has been proven time and time again, in Portland, and Chicago, and Minneapolis, and all across the country.

Hope this was helpful.

https://democraticunderground.com/100221548879

A family in San Francisco is grieving today. Ulysses Tykee Davis, a 47-year-old security guard known to friends, his wife, and his six children as “Bear,” was shot in the back in a chaotic scene at the Warwick Hotel, where a reality TV show was filming. Davis's wife and two of his children witnessed the shooting.

Shakia Vanderbilt, a member of a notorious "smash and grab" retail theft ring known as "The Rainbow Crew," was arrested and charged with homicide, discharging a firearm into an occupied building, and possessing a firearm as a felon, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins told the San Francisco Chronicle.

In the 2010s, Vanderbilt was a member of what was first called "The Rainbow Girls." They were doing smash-and-grab robberies at high-end retail stores before the practice became national news. Authorities claim the crew stole more than $1 million worth of goods.
...
Vanderbilt was arrested in 2014 for an alleged theft at a TJ Maxx store in Daly City, where she stabbed a security guard on her way out of the door. "She was also arrested along with other crew members in 2017 following an hours-long chase in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties that stemmed from a robbery earlier that day in Los Angeles, and the suspects were found with $15,000 worth of stolen property in their vehicle," notes SFist.

SFist reported in 2016 that "16 members of the crew had been charged in San Francisco in connection with 23 retail thefts totaling around $200,000."

Vanderbilt never went to prison. Her criminal cases are still "pending."

The White House ripped Joe Biden after documents declassified by President Donald Trump on Monday revealed internal strife between the former president's Department of Justice (DOJ) and the FBI's Washington Field Office (WFO) before carrying out a raid on Mar-a-Lago in 2022.

In the months leading up to the raid, internal emails between FBI agents in the field office expressed frustration that the DOJ, led by then-Attorney General Merrick Garland, was unresponsive to their requests and unwilling to consider alternative options to raiding Trump's estate in Palm Beach, Florida a year-and-a-half after he left office after his first term.
...
"Spying on political opponents is weaponization of law enforcement, plain and simple," the White House said Tuesday. "This is further proof the Biden administration weaponized the DOJ to target political opponents. Those responsible must be held accountable."
...
An internal email from July 13, 2022, less than a month before the raid, the assistant special agent in charge of the WFO said flatly that the FBI didn't believe there was probable cause for the raid.

"WFO does not believe (and has articulated to DOJ CES), that we have established probable cause for the search warrant at Mar a Lago. DOJ has opined that they do, requesting the a wide scope including residence, office, storage space," that email says.
...

The agent annoyedly continued by implying that the DOJ wasn't interested in recovering the allegedly mishandled classified documents, intimating that there may have been an ulterior motive.

"Finally, if the goal is to identify and recover classified records quickly, so as to protect the information, the 5 weeks spent fixated on probable cause for a search warrant have been counterproductive," the email said.

I couldn’t read this story, but it was another case of the fake news media stepping in and deleting it before they could be dragged over the coals. The problem is, no one is that quick, and Donald Trump Jr., who ABC News targeted, is doing a victory lap. Basically, ABC News was running with shoddy trash reporting that defense companies in which Eric and Trump Jr. are invested are getting contracts. Well, yeah, that’s what companies do, guys. Before I could read the story, ABC News nuked it, albeit with no explanation, editor’s note, or clarification.

Here’s a preview:

Quote

ABC News reported that AI defense company Anduril Industries, a company in which Donald Jr.’s 1789 Capital has a major investment, was awarded a multi-billion deal announced by Trump on Tuesday, and had been awarded 135 other contracts with the government.

The analysis found that defense companies backed by Donald Jr. and Eric, including Vulcan Elements, Firehawk Aeropace and PsiQuantum, had been awarded more than $6 billion in active or promised government contracts, since the two invested in the companies.

From an embedded X post:

Quote

This post shows you have literally zero financial literacy.

1789 Capital does not have a "major stake" in Anduril.

It's  false to say Vulcan, Firehawk, and PsiQuantum are "backed by Don Jr and Eric Trump."'

Here's a small lesson, that I also explained to ABC, the "reporter" who is a complete idiot conflated raising funds with investment by 1789. Those are two separate actions.

Meaning the "investments" mentioned were actually the total number raised for a funding round, that MANY companies contribute to.

Another thing that the reporter buried the lead on was that many of these companies have gotten government contracts during Biden AND Trump, which completely negates the assertion by ABC that Don Jr and Eric Trump are doing anything wrong.