The GTP Unofficial 2020 US Elections Thread

[UKMikey]

Fielder, Walker... it sounds like an Abbott & Costello baseball sketch.

 

[TexRex]

Fielder, Walker... it sounds like an Abott & Costello baseball sketch.

I was a split second away from putting a glass to my lips when I read this. That was close.

 

[Keef]

I'm not good at following Twitter because the format is nonsensical but I did struggle along and I got annoyed halfway through. Not sure how the judge is dealing with it. At least he's getting paid.

 

[McLaren]

That was amusing. Am waiting on the big cheddar case, though: Lindell vs. Dominion.

 

[TexRex]

Two Charged with Conspiracy in Scheme to Attack Democratic Headquarters in Sacramento

www.justice.gov

Today, the federal court in San Francisco unsealed an indictment charging two California men with conspiracy to destroy a building affecting interstate commerce, and related crimes, in a scheme to attack the John L. Burton Democratic Headquarters in Sacramento.

According to court documents, Ian Benjamin Rogers, 45, of Napa, and Jarrod Copeland, 37, of Vallejo, began planning to attack targets they associated with Democrats after the 2020 Presidential election and sought support from an anti-government militia group. According to the indictment, the defendants planned to use incendiary devices to attack their targets and hoped their attacks would prompt a movement.

“Firebombing your perceived political opponents is illegal and does not nurture the sort of open and vigorous debate that created and supports our constitutional democracy,” said U.S. Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds. “The allegations in the indictment describe despicable conduct. Investigation and prosecution of those who choose violence over discussion is as important as anything else we do to protect our free society.”

“The FBI’s highest priority has remained preventing terrorist attacks before they occur, including homegrown plots from domestic violent extremists,” said Special Agent in Charge Craig Fair. “As described in the indictment, Ian Rogers and Jarrod Copeland planned an attack using incendiary devices. The FBI and the Napa County Sheriff’s Office have worked hand-in-hand to uncover this conspiracy and to prevent any loss of life.”

The indictment describes how Copeland and Rogers used multiple messaging applications and discussed the attacks on numerous occasions. For example, in late December 2020, Copeland told Rogers he contacted an anti-government militia group to gather support for the movement and in January 2021, Rogers told Copeland “I want to blow up a democrat building bad.” Copeland agreed, saying, “I agree” “Plan attack”. The agreed to start with the Democratic Headquarters in Sacramento and to “see what happens.” In one exchange, Rogers wrote to Copeland, “after the 20th we go to war,” meaning that they would initiate acts of violence after the inauguration on January 20, 2021.

According to court documents, on January 15, just four days after that exchange and five days before the trigger that Rogers and Copeland identified as the start of their campaign of violence, law enforcement officers searched Rogers’s home and business and seized a cache of weapons from Rogers’s home, including 45 to 50 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition, and five pipe bombs. Copeland allegedly also attempted to destroy evidence of the plan; after Rogers’s arrest, Copeland communicated with a leader of a militia group who advised Copeland to switch to a new communications platform and delete everything he had. Copeland agreed and when law enforcement obtained Copeland’s devices on January 17, Copeland’s communications with Rogers were missing.

Additional documents filed by the government argue that the defendants understood they would be viewed as domestic terrorists and hoped that their violent acts might start a movement to overthrow the government. In November of 2020, Rogers allegedly used encrypted messaging applications to tell Copeland that he would “hit the enemy in the mouth” by using Molotov cocktails and gasoline to attack targets associated with democrats, including the Governor’s Mansion and the Democratic Headquarters Building in Sacramento.

Rogers and Copeland are both charged with conspiracy to destroy by fire or explosive a building used or in affecting interstate commerce. Rogers is charged with additional weapons violations, including one count of possession of unregistered destructive devices, and three counts of possession of machine guns. Copeland is charged with an additional count of destruction of records. If convicted, the defendants face a maximum statutory sentence of 20 years imprisonment, a three-year term of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine for the conspiracy charge. In addition, Rogers faces a maximum of 10 years in prison for the weapons charge and Copeland faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for the destruction of evidence charge. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. Rogers also faces numerous state charges arising out of his possession of the pipe bombs and machine guns, and his possession of assault rifles prohibited under California law, and is being prosecuted for those offenses by the Napa County District Attorney’s Office.

Rogers has remained in state custody since his arrest on January 15, 2021. Copeland was arrested yesterday morning and made an initial federal court appearance this morning in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Copeland will appear next on July 20, 2021, for a detention hearing. Rogers will appear next on July 30, 2021, for a status conference.

Acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds of the Northern District of California; Associate Attorney General Mark Lesko of the Justice Department’s National Security Division; and Special Agent in Charge Craig D. Fair for the FBI’s San Francisco Field Office made the announcement.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Frank Riebli of the Northern District of California and Trial Attorney David Cora of the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section are prosecuting the case.

The FBI’s San Francisco Field Office is investigating the case, with valuable assistance provided by the FBI Sacramento Field Office and Napa County Sheriff’s Department.

An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

 

[ROAD_DOGG33J]

Two Charged with Conspiracy in Scheme to Attack Democratic Headquarters in Sacramento

www.justice.gov

The legacy of Trump and the GOP

 

[McLaren]

Two Charged with Conspiracy in Scheme to Attack Democratic Headquarters in Sacramento

www.justice.gov

People have been theorizing for months that Trump's rhetoric would eventually drive people to become even more violent in his name, and....

 

[Keef]

Any conservative - this happened to me last night - will counter with liberal plots to do similar things. Something about 1983 bomb at the capitol.

I'm not super familiar with the political climate in 1983 - I wasn't born yet - but I'm not entirely sure how relevant that is to the current movement on our hands.

 

[Imari]

If only there was some kind of database that had your signature on file that could be matched up to your signed ballot.

...wait a minute.

To be fair, the idea that a signature is some sort of strong security feature is pretty laughable. I have to sign a bajillion things at work, and I'm pretty sure that multiple copies of my own signature, as signed by me, would come back as not matching. On the flip side, the difficulty in forging someone else's signature is pretty low - if you can get a copy of their signature from somewhere and hold a pen with the pointy side down you can probably manage it.

Voter identification isn't fundamentally a bad idea, even if voter fraud isn't a rampant problem increasing trust in election results has value. It's just an issue when it's used to exclude people, as seems to be the real goal of most "voter identification" proposals. If everyone was given an ID card at birth free of charge with replacements available from any post office or ordered online to be delivered to you also free of charge, then this isn't even an issue. But I don't hear people suggesting free and easily accessible identification for all, just additional restrictions on voting.

If America is ever truly going to be great again, we need to bring back practices that illustrate our strength and determination.

Like lynching people we don't like. and the Republicans go wild, rah rah rah

It's distressing that in 2021 it's still so easy for people to say "I think the solution is that we should just kill all the people that I think are the problem".

 

[TheHun99]

I admire the creativity of this man’s brain:

Mike Lindell Says Election's 'Real Totals' Are Trump 80M, Biden Below 68M

Lindell has also said that his "cyber symposium" this month will reveal new evidence of voting machine fraud orchestrated by China.

www.newsweek.com

 

[Keef]

I admire the creativity of this man’s brain:

Mike Lindell Says Election's 'Real Totals' Are Trump 80M, Biden Below 68M

Lindell has also said that his "cyber symposium" this month will reveal new evidence of voting machine fraud orchestrated by China.

www.newsweek.com

I've always admired the brains of entrepreneurs, particularly ones that make their business off silly things. Like pillows. There's a store here in Dayton that I love - they have a lot of Dayton- and Ohio-centric merchandise and a lot of local pride. However the vast majority of products they sell are useless trinkets. And I think to myself, any entrepreneur selling stuff like that has to sleep at night knowing that their entire livelihood hinges on a strategy of convincing people to waste their money on useless things. That strikes me as rather conniving. And they're not simply donating this useless crap, they're sourcing it, curating this selection, and then pricing them for profit. "I know this thing is useless but I bet some idiot will buy it for x markup, allowing me to take their money in exchange for something worthless." They're not selling food or shelter or knowledge...they're selling penis candles. How do they sleep at night?

Particularly Lindell who is the connivingest conniver of them all. He sells pillows for $80. Ridiculous. What an absolute thief.

 

[Danoff]

Particularly Lindell who is the connivingest conniver of them all. He sells pillows for $80. Ridiculous. What an absolute thief.

Danoff who just woke up having slept on a pillow that cost $150.

 

[TexRex]

Dealing with chronic pain, the difference between sleeping at night and not is frequently a good pillow or powerful pharmaceuticals. I prefer the pillow.

 

[Keef]

I am getting tired of stacking these $5 potato sacks but I'm not super keen on the idea of spending a lot on a pillow that also goes flat eventually. Can you even return pillows after trying them for a week or two?

 

[UKMikey]

Those people giving it bad reviews are all paid by Chynah 😜🇺🇲🇺🇲

[EDIT]These flag emojis are rubbish...

 

[Keef]

[EDIT]These flag emojis are rubbish...

Are you kidding, that's the best damn flag emoji I've ever seen! Hoorah!

And I'm prouuud to post this emoji flag 🇺🇸
It's the best I've ever seen
And I won't ever post that other rag
Bet yer ass I've got no queen...

Okay I'm done.

 

[UKMikey]

Are you kidding, that's the best damn flag emoji I've ever seen! Hoorah!

And I'm prouuud to post this emoji flag 🇺🇸
It's the best I've ever seen
And I won't ever post that other rag
Bet yer ass I've got no queen...

Okay I'm done.

No I mean they look like flags on my keyboard but when you post them, they become circles, not flags.

 

[McLaren]

I admire the creativity of this man’s brain:

Mike Lindell Says Election's 'Real Totals' Are Trump 80M, Biden Below 68M

Lindell has also said that his "cyber symposium" this month will reveal new evidence of voting machine fraud orchestrated by China.

www.newsweek.com

I don't think that's foam they're using in Mike's pillow anymore.

 

[Danoff]

Tucker Carlson will apparently be trotting this out shortly:

New Evidence Indicates Enough Illegal Votes In Georgia To Tip 2020

Both an audit and a recount confirmed Biden’s victory, but ignored in the process was evidence that nearly 35,000 Georgians had potentially voted illegally.

thefederalist.com

Apparently some voters cast their ballots in the wrong county after moving. This is "illegal" in Georgia. That "illegal" is quickly being re-branded as "fraud" and assumed to be "democrat". The number of votes currently at stake could have swayed Georgia, but it's not clear how many of those votes were cast in the wrong county, or who they voted for.

More Trump Election Distortions - FactCheck.org

Continuing to claim there is "so much evidence" of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, former President Donald Trump offered two new distortions of the facts about election results in Georgia, a state where recounts showed he narrowly lost by 12,670 votes.

www.factcheck.org

Looks like Georgia isn't even going to try to figure this out. 86% of those voters were in-person anyway, meaning probably most votes invalidated along these lines would have been for Trump. Basically it looks like there is no quick way to ascertain what a person's true residence is to figure out whether they voted in the wrong county. It has to be done on a case-by-case basis which involves quite a bit of research into what their "true" address was and what their intent was in terms of temporary or permanent residence. In short, the law that you have to vote in your county of registration seems very difficult to enforce, especially en masse, and Georgia has basically said they're not interested in running it down. So that seems to be case closed on this issue.

 

[TexRex]

Would eliminating such a requirement really be so bad? The numbers taking advantage of the allowance aren't likely to be huge and it doesn't strike me as increasing fraud susceptibility. It may have been beneficial in the past when people weren't likely to be so transient, but times have changed especially as a result of COVID.

It seems to me that the father of a GTPlaneter would be a beneficiary of such an allowance, as residence was presented as the reason for failure to vote. It's just a pity it was initially suggested that the individual had been turned away from a polling location based on political leanings--a total fabrication--as part of an allegation of hypocrisy over a court ruling that previously disregarded ballots in a gubernatorial race be counted.

 

[UKMikey]

More Trump Election Distortions - FactCheck.org

Continuing to claim there is "so much evidence" of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, former President Donald Trump offered two new distortions of the facts about election results in Georgia, a state where recounts showed he narrowly lost by 12,670 votes.

www.factcheck.org

Looks like Georgia isn't even going to try to figure this out. 86% of those voters were in-person anyway, meaning probably most votes invalidated along these lines would have been for Trump. Basically it looks like there is no quick way to ascertain what a person's true residence is to figure out whether they voted in the wrong county. It has to be done on a case-by-case basis which involves quite a bit of research into what their "true" address was and what their intent was in terms of temporary or permanent residence. In short, the law that you have to vote in your county of registration seems very difficult to enforce, especially en masse, and Georgia has basically said they're not interested in running it down. So that seems to be case closed on this issue.

Leaving aside Trump's distortions and lies about the deleted votes, GQP didn't do much to get Brad Raffensperger on side following the election result, what with all the death threats to his family and everything. Why should they expect his office to lift a finger to help Trump, let alone trace 100,000 votes in the hope that a majority of them would've voted R?

 

[Danoff]

Would eliminating such a requirement really be so bad?

No. Colorado has no such requirement.

Did you make a mistake on your Colorado ballot? Or put it in the wrong drop box? Here’s what you can do.

Yes, sometimes mistakes happen with mail ballots. But Colorado election officials say there are ways to ensure that your vote gets counted.

coloradosun.com

"I realized I put my ballot in a dropoff box in the wrong county. How do I fix it? It’s OK. Your ballot will be date-stamped to show it arrived in time, then delivered to the correct county and counted. (You aren’t alone! Neighboring counties actually set up arrangements to deliver or exchange ballots to get them to the right place.)"

Leaving aside Trump's distortions and lies about the deleted votes, GQP didn't do much to get Brad Raffensperger on side following the election result, what with all the death threats to his family and everything. Why should they expect his office to lift a finger to help Trump, let alone trace 100,000 votes in the hope that a majority of them would've voted R?

32,000, and definitely less than that.

 

[TexRex]

Very nearly six months since Biden took office and closer to nine months than eight since the 2020 presidential election, there are no active legal challenges to the results of the election in the state of Georgia. Frivolous challenges (well, frivolous apart from the primary aim of performative pandering to the base, anyway) are ongoing elsewhere, but...progress?

 

[Keef]

Now the people of Georgia need to keep their passions fired up for the next election cycle. I was absolutely floored when Warnock and Ossoff won but now the state congress and governor are on the chopping block. Gubernational elections tend to have middling turnout so if the senators' voters stay impassioned they could influence some lopsided votes.

 

[Danoff]

The Arizona "audit" is riling up a lot of Trumpists. I've painstakingly gone through all of the "suspicious" numbers with at least one Trumpist, and they're unmoved. The arizona side show is doing what everyone knew it would do, throw out just enough suspicion to let people who desperately want to believe the conspiracy to believe it. It's painful to watch though.

 

[Keef]

It's painful to watch though.

On the plus side, the FBI's never-ending field day is rather fun to watch.

 

[TexRex]

 

[Keef]

Freudian slip.

 

[UKMikey]

McCarthy pulls his 5 GOP members from 1/6 committee after Pelosi rejects 2 of his picks

House Republicans balked at participating in the House committee that's investigating the January 6 insurrection on Wednesday after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two of the five Republicans House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy had tapped for the panel.

edition.cnn.com

 

[TexRex]

It was always the plan. It hinged on him picking feckless, fuhrer-fellating firebrands.